Return
by Lordoftheghostking28
Summary: Mark and Monica are back...but this time, they get visitors to THEIR world!
1. Chapter 1

**Ok, everyone. Um, this is the sequel to ****The Visitors to Our World****, and if you haven't read it yet, you might wanna, just for character references and stuff like that. I own **_**ONLY**_** Mark, Monica and Leo, no one else, **_**CLEAR**_**? Also this was originally going to be Legend of Zelda, but I thought, 'Hey, people might get confused if I say the prequel was in another category of fan fics.' Ok, now that that's out of the way, I can go on with this. REFRESHER: Mark and Monica made it back to Earth and challenged each other to the game that they had just exited from. It was all good, and they lived happily ever after.**

**Heh, yeah right. If it was, I wouldn't be sitting here up against a wall with my back hurting writing this. ****Rated T for mild language, intense action and peril, and rude humor****. Also when I say MILD LANGUAGE; I mean that they'll say things like, "Oh, crap!" or "Holy shi-" and then get cut off. Just wanted to clear that up on account of people getting confused. I'll paste that onto my profile eventually too. Also this switches between Monica and Mark's point of views. Just look for the bolded name and then you know who's talking in 1****st**** person.**

**Ok, now on with the story.**

**MONICA**

It had been one year sense we had been sucked into Mark's game. Even though I had been determined to hate the strange planet, I grew to love it. It was a home away from home. You see, our parents were too busy for us sometimes. In the game, it was like a family.

A crazy, slightly scary, psychopathic family, at any rate.

Ever sense we had come back to our basement Mark and I have been working on ways to get back.

Mark played stage five: level two over and over and over again, trying and failing to send us back. I played through the game's storyline(Which, by the way, was similar to our adventure) and found nothing like the hooded guy that had sent us back to our real world.

Two months of fruitless attempts later we gave up.

I turned my focus to school and Mark to comics and other Sonic the Hedgehog games. Our great adventure seemed to be a dream we both had long ago.

We were both 14 now, but we felt like we had never changed. To tell you the truth, most girls my age were getting all hyped up over boys while I still couldn't tear my eyes away from a book. I never wanted to be like them. For that I was ridiculed and shunned.

Like I cared.

Every now and then I would catch Mark attempting the stage and level again, but he saw me he would just shrug and sigh. "It's hopeless." He would say.

"Then why do you keep trying?" I asked.

"I feel like if I try enough, something'll happen." Mark said, dodging a robot on screen. Seeing the thing throw punches at Sonic made my stomach twist into a knot as I remembered our encounter with the exact same thing.

"But if something does, call me. I don't want to miss it for the world." I turned to go back up the stairs.

"Monica! I'm going to go shopping!" Our mom called from the garage. "Be back soon!"

Whenever she said that, it usually meant something along the lines of: Be back when the store runs out of 'fashionable' crap.

I sighed and decided to stay in the basement. "You've gotten the best rank on every stage, every single extra, and every unlockable. I think that it means that the adventure we had will never happen again." I said.

Mark paused the game but continued to stare at the screen. "I guess you're right." He finally admitted. "I just want to go back. I didn't really get to meet everyone yet."

"I know. And I miss Cream." I sighed. "She helped me realize how great that place is."

"You wanna try?" Mark held the remote out to me.

"I've tried a bazillion times." I said. "Face it Mark, nothing's going to happen."

"Well, can you get through this level, then? I have to pee." Mark hopped up out of the chair he was sitting in, passed the remote to me and hopped up the stairs. Was it just me, or did the screen get brighter?

Oh, well.

I sat down with another heavy sigh and resumed the game in time to see the robot bring one of its hammers down right on top of Sonic. "Yikes." I gasped, gathering most of the dropped rings.

I expertly dodged some more of its attacks and then smacked its head with the metal pipe that was hanging from the ceiling. When it was down, I spin-dashed into its head and popped it clean off its shoulders. Then the ending screen popped up with the time, number of rings, and bonus stuff. Rank: S

"I rule this game." I thought happily. A notice popped up on screen. I read it over quickly. It said that I had unlocked a character sketch thing in the Extras menu.

Weird, I thought Mark had already unlocked everything.

I dismissed that thought and proceeded to go to the Extras menu. From there I discovered a flashing NEW sign on one of the unlockables. I clicked it.

_It has been long._

What….the….Jell-o…

_You miss Mobius, don't you? But you obviously forgot what you did to me…_

"What's going on?" I gasped, my eyes wide.

_Monica, don't you want to see your friends again? Have more adventures? That all comes with a small price…_

"Who is this?" I screamed. I didn't care that the TV couldn't hear me.

_The price is I come too._

"Who…what?" I threw the remote on the ground and stepped backwards. "What's going on?"

That was when the Wii began to glow brightly. But it seemed to be glowing with a slight purple glow too. I closed my eyes, covered my ears and hid behind the chair as a deafening squeal filled the air. It was all over in a matter of seconds.

I was just about to see if the Wii had self-destructed when I heard voices.

"Uh…where are we?"

At first I thought it was Mark, but his voice had gotten deeper in the last year. No, this was someone else.

I peeked around the chair and nearly screamed. For there, in my very own basement, was the world's fastest hedgehog; the Ultimate Life Form; the smartest fox in the history of ever, practically; a psychic psycho and his fire-controlling friend; and a red demon with spikes on his knuckles.

"Where am I?" Tails squeaked, looking around. "What happened?"

"Guys?" I came out from behind the chair.

You couldn't mistake the looks of shock and worry on their faces. "Monica?" Sonic asked. "Where are we?"

"In…in my basement." I stuttered. "How'd you get here?"

"No clue." Silver shrugged. "first we were going through a forest, and now we're here."

"I was checking out the Extras menu on the game…and then you guys showed up after I checked something." I said quickly. "It said something like: 'If you want to see your friends again, then I must come too.'"

Knuckles hissed. "That sounds like Eggman." He muttered.

"Now that you said that, I did notice something suspicious going on." Blaze said. "There was a small clearing that we were all in."

"Then there was a flash of purple-ish light and then-"

THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK.

Mark came clomping down the stairs. "Monica! What was that noise? What…" He trailed off and nearly fell down the rest of the stairs.

"Hello again, Mark." Shadow said.

"Uh…hi…what….what are you all doing in my basement?" Mark was pale.

"Let Monica explain _that_." Sonic said. He had claimed the chair in front of the TV and was fiddling with the remote. "So what game is this?"

"It's your game." I said.

"So I can keep it?" Sonic asked excitedly. "Sweet!"

"Not like that." Mark took the game's box out from behind the Wii. "It's literally _your_ game."

I was pretty sure if the situation wasn't already beyond impossible Sonic's jaw would have hit the floor and broke all his teeth. Instead he glanced from the game to us, and then back again.

After about thirty seconds of that and complete silence this was his reaction:

"SWEEEEEEET!"

Blaze rolled her eyes. "You know, we really need to focus on the probablem at hand, Sonic. You can play the game later."

"But Blaze! You're in here too! And so is everyone else!" Sonic said excitedly, pointing wildly to the screen.

"Really?" Silver was suddenly interested. "Can you play as me?"

"Yeah!"

I reached over and turned the Wii and TV off. I got a load of Sonic and Silver's disappointed faces and almost burst out laughing.

"What do you have to eat?" Knuckles asked, "I could use something."

"Yeah, me too." Sonic dropped the remote, hopped up from the chair, and zoomed up the steps. Mark ran after him as a terrible feeling came over me. I turned to the others.

"Knuckles, you said that the message sounded like something Eggman would send, right?" I asked slowly.

"Yeah?"

"Well, if you're all here…does that mean…?"

Blaze's yes got wide. "More than likely."

"Oh, crap." I hit my forehead with my palm. "Crap, crap, crap! I thought it'd be bad enough with all you here; no one to protect your planet, but now this…!"

"Who knows what he could do here." Shadow added.

"Ok, that's not helping." I sighed. "We need to find him, and pretty darn fast! And after that, there's the issue of getting you all back home, and not having Animal Control all over our lawn, and small things like that." I sighed again and sank into the chair and faced the blank TV screen.

"What's Animal Control?" Tails asked.

"It's when people come and get you all and drag you to animal prison." I answered. "Forever."

"…Sounds happy." Silver concluded.

"Come on. Let's go upstairs." I got up and lead them all up.

I found Mark sitting at the table and Sonic going through the fridge. "Hey, get out of there!" I said. "We don't have anything worth eating."

"I'll be the judge of that." Silver said, beginning to go through the cupboards. "Hmmm…who likes Sun Chips and Guacamole?"

"Ewww, no." Blaze said.

"Ok, if you really want something, there's ice cream in the freezer." I said, instantly regretting it, because both Sonic and Silver lunged for the freezer and nearly tore the door off.

There was the sound of our garage door opening. That was when I overlooked something vitally important. It was worse than evil geniuses running around our world and Animal Control.

"Mark, what the heck are we gonna tell Mom and Dad?" I asked in a panic.

**A/N: Ooh, awesome, right? Hope you're enjoying this, cuz I am. And did I really describe Knuckles as a red demon? Ah, well. If he's mad he can be…**

**MARK**

My eyes got wide. The garage door stopped opening. "Oh no." I gasped.

"Distract him! I'll get everyone to a safe place!" Monica grabbed the ice cream out of Silver's hands and took the spoons from Sonic. "Maybe later guys, but right now if you're discovered, then all heck'll break loose."

I ran to the door that I knew either my mom or dad would enter into and waited until the door opened. My dad stumbled into the room after a very hard day at work.

"Hi, Dad!" I said, flinging my arms around his waist. "What's up?"

"Oh, hi, Mark. Sorry, I'm really tired." My dad muttered. He pushed me away and threw his computer case on the couch. "Stupid co-workers never do anything right…" He muttered.

"Mom went shopping again." I informed, plopping down next to his case. "Don't know when she'll be back."

My dad sighed loudly. "I don't understand her anymore." He whispered. "She knows we can't afford this…"

"What if I get a job?" I asked helpfully.

"You might have too." My dad undid his tie and threw it on the counter. "We'll need you and Monica just to pay the gas bill."

I smiled grimly. Money was always a probablem. "Well, on the other hand, we might make enough money to pay for food too!"

"That's be great." My dad sighed. He sank into the couch next to me. "So how was your day?"

"Awesome." I recounted the last few minuets. "I uh…I beat my video game again."

"I'm surprised your eyes haven't fallen out of your head yet." My dad joked.

"That's what Monica always says." I said back.

"Well, I've got a lot to do. Tell Monica that dinner's going to be in fifteen minuets."

I got up off the couch. "Ok. Bye, dad!"

I ran upstairs and into the room that Monica and I shared. I opened the door and entered to find Sonic spinning on our swivel chair and Monica looking about ready to kill him. "Shut up and hold still!"

Blaze was reading Monica's book and Silver was trying to read over her shoulder. Shadow was looking at our family photos that we had taken on our last vacation that seemed like lifetimes ago. Tails was trying to hack our computer and Knuckles was examining Monica's fencing sword. "What do you do with this?"

"You learn swordplay." Monica said curtly, glaring at Sonic, but he didn't notice. He was too busy getting dizzy.

"Could come in handy." He put the sword down.

"Where's this?" Shadow asked, pointing to the Lincoln Memorial that was behind us in one of our photos. Monica and I couldn't have been more that six in that picture.

"Washington DC." I said. "Our nation's capital."

"Where are we now?" Shadow asked. "How far away is this place?"

I pulled a map out of one of our computer drawers. I turned to the United States and pointed to the state shaped like a glove. "We're here, in Michigan." I said. "Right dead center. DC is all the way over here." I pointed to the capital.

"Is this your entire world?" Shadow asked.

"No, there's a lot more." I opened to the page that contained the entire world on it. "Our nation's just one of hundreds."

"Wow, your world is bigger than ours." Silver said, coming over to look at the map. "Your nation is funny."

"It's called a state, and it makes up part of the nation." I said. "So there you are, the fastest geography/history lesson you've ever had."

" Cool."

"I like this book." Blaze held up Monica's book, Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke.

"It's one of my favorites." Monica said. "All the way through, it's full of action, friendship and suspense."

Sonic got off of our swivel chair and ran into a wall. "Ow…" He muttered.

"I told you to stop spinning." Monica growled. "Next time, listen."

Sonic fell face first onto my bed and sort of passed out there.

"Hey, you guys have got to pick a better password." Tails said from our computer. "I just hacked your internet."

I glanced at the computer and discovered he had hacked the National Bank.

"AAAGH! What the heck are you thinking?" I quickly logged out and shut the computer down. "Maybe they can't track us…"

"What did I do?" Tails asked, looking worried.

"You hacked the National Bank." I said, my knees shaking. "Now we could all get arrested."

Tails backed away from the computer like it would bite him. "Sorry…"

"Next time, if you come across anything that requires a password, tell us first before you hack." I said.

"Right."

Silver glanced at the pile of books by Monica's bed and picked one up and began to read.

"I'll go check if Dad's still here and/or awake." Monica went to the door and slipped out, leaving me with the Crazy Crew.

"So when's dinner?" Sonic asked, his voice muffled from the blankets on the bed. "I'm hungry."

I sighed and glanced out my window at the forest behind my house.

**A/N: Wow, Tails hacked the national bank! Good for him! (Honestly, I don't know what would have happened…) Anyway, Monica and Mark's dad was in the story! Good for him! Yey! Anyway, you can sort of see some family tension and all. Well, anyway, will the 'Crazy Crew' find Eggman, or not? Find out soon!**

**MONICA**

Dad was snoring his head off on the couch when I snuck downstairs. Taking that as a signal that it was safe, I ran back upstairs. "Dad's asleep. I think we should all get out of the house."

So with me in the lead and Mark bringing up the rear, we made it down the steps without any trouble. Getting to the door and out into the forest was an entirely different story. We would have to cross directly in front of my dad.

"Ok, I'll get the door open, and then we run for it." I whispered. "Ok?"

Knuckles gave me a slight nod and I crept forward and opened the door. I motioned for them to start coming.

Tails flew almost silently to the door and out. Sonic tip toed out the door and then broke into a sprint to reach the forest. Blaze was just as quiet along with Shadow and Knuckles. Then Silver took two steps, tripped over the rug, and landed on his face with a slightly loud crack.

My dad muttered something from the couch but didn't wake up. Silver curled up on the rug looking about ready to start screaming about a broken nose or something. Luckily, I didn't see any traces of blood…yet.

"Come on Silver, we have to move now!" I whispered urgently. "I mean it! My dad seriously overreacts!"

Silver started crawling blindly to the door. He wasn't moving very fast and any second I feared that my dad would wake up, spot him, and call 9-1-1.

From the forest I could see Mark motioning to us wildly. He looked about ready to jump out of the woods and run back at us and yell.

That was when the worst happened, if you can even believe it.

Silver's boot hit the doorframe with a loud THUNK. My dad stirred, opened his eyes, and stared at us.

"Um, hi, dad." I whispered, waving pitifully. "This isn't what it looks like."

My dad paled and pointed a shaking finger at Silver. "What….what…?"

Silver seemed to forget about his nose as my dad got up and headed towards us. "AGH! Let's go, Monica!"

Silver grabbed my wrist and practically pulled me over in his haste to get to the woods. I could see Mark motioning to us from the woods. Everyone else was already running deeper into it.

I glanced back to see my dad gaining on us. He grabbed my other wrist and there was a mini tug of war over me. When Silver realized that my dad had me he let my arm go and backed up slightly.

"Monica, are you ok?" My dad demanded, pale and shaking. "What is that thing?"

"Dad, his name is Silver and…" I started, but Silver had grabbed my hoodie's sleeve and began tugging me towards the woods.

With speed I had never before seen in my dad he ran over to Silver and punched him as hard as he could in his jaw. Silver flew backwards and hit the ground hard. He groaned slightly and then fell unconscious. "Dad!" I yelled. "Why'd you do that?"

"Where's Mark?" My dad demanded.

"Monica, what are you…" Mark came barreling out of the woods. He spotted Silver and our dad and his eyes got wide. "What happened?"

"Come back to the house, now!" My dad commanded in harsh tones I had never heard before. "Come back to the house and we'll call the cops!"

"No, dad!" Mark yelled. He grabbed my wrist. "You…you wouldn't understand…"

He gave me a glance that said: You know what to do.

I gave him a slight nod and quickly reached down, picked up Silver and Mark and I ran off.

Our dad screamed at us to come back, but I probably couldn't have even if I wanted to. He started coming after us, but soon stopped. We knew the woods better than he did. Along the small deer path I felt tears sting my eyes. Why did my dad, out of all people, have to get involved with this?

By the time we met up with the others, it was getting darker. We had run further than I thought. We were in unfamiliar territory.

"What happened?" Blaze demanded. "What happened to Silver?"

Silver muttered something at the mention at his name and I gently lowered him to the forest's floor. "May dad freaked out." I muttered, embarrassed. "Now we're on the run."

"This day could not get better…" Knuckles grumbled.

"So…what now?" Sonic asked. "Do we try to find Eggman or do we wait for him to find us?"

"Probably us finding him." Mark said. "But if we wait, he's bound to pull off some absurd crime that'd attract the whole city."

"How do we even know that he's even here?" Tails asked. "I mean, if he came here too, wouldn't he have been in your basement?"

I didn't have a reply to that. Mark, unfortunately, did. "Maybe he programmed some teleportation device thing and it set him in a different location."

"He could be halfway across the world." Shadow said.

"Oh, man, that'd be bad." I shuddered.

We sat there for a few seconds, waiting for Silver to wake up and contribute to the group. Eventually he opened his eyes and glanced up at the treetops. "Owww…" He groaned.

"Sorry about that, Silver." I sighed. "Nothing broken?"

"Mah tongue's swellin'." Silver muttered.

"Ok, we'll take a few more seconds to rest." I said, finding a rock and sitting on it. "We probably need to get out of here. Get as far away as possible because the police'll be onto us."

"So we need to avoid police, major highways, our family, Animal Control, suspicious people, dark alleys, and things like that?" Mark piped up.

"That's the plan."

It began to get really dark. Luckily one of our companions glowed and the other controlled fire. We could survive for weeks.

Blaze gathered up some wood and started a small fire while the rest of us claimed a spot on the ground and tried to get as comfortable as possible.

**A/N: Wow, avoiding all that chaos and finding Eggman…easy, right? Yeah, easy. That's why this Fan Fic is already 3,828 words and counting. Heh, **_**easy**_**…**

**MARK**

I was awakened the next morning by an obnoxious bird that couldn't sing but refused to believe it couldn't. I wanted nothing more than to jump up and pluck all the feathers off it.

"Are all animals on this planet this annoying?" Shadow growled from a tree, where he was keeping watch.

"A couple are." I muttered, stretching out from the long, cold night on the forest's floor. The fire pit was out; it had probably gone out long ago. I glanced around and did a quick head count.

"Never again…" Monica muttered, yawning. "Never again will I sleep on the bare forest floor. I think I was eaten alive by mosquitoes."

"I want breakfast…" Sonic groaned, rolling over. He still was asleep. "I want pancakes and bacon and orange juice and sausage and maple syrup and scrambled eggs and toast and Nutella on the toast and…and…"

"Oh, man, I never thought about what we'd do for food." I sighed. "I was too scared by my own dad."

Blaze sat up, brushed the twigs out of her fur and arched her back in a long stretch. "Someone mentioned food."

I glanced over to Tails, who had both tails curled around him so he looked as cute and innocent as could be. I hated to wake him.

"Hey, Tails, wake up. We've got to find something to eat." I said.

"Five more minuets…" He mumbled.

"In that case let's try to cover our trail." Monica began digging a hole in the ground with her bare hands and putting parts of the burnt-out campfire in it. "Come on, everyone. Help me."

Knuckles literally bashed a hole in the ground and threw more burnt wood in it. "Now that that's taken care of, let's worry about food."

"And water." Silver muttered unhelpfully, brushing small clumps of dirt off his arms. "Water is good."

"So is shutting up." Shadow suggested.

"Ok, now that we're all bright eyed and bushy tailed-" I got the weirdest glance in the history of ever from Tails. "-we can worry about food."

"Right. Cold pizza, anyone?" Sonic suggested.

"No, we're not going anywhere public." I clearly stated. "You guys would be too easily recognized as…well…you know."

"So why can't you guys get the pizza and we wait here?" Tails said. "You won't be recognized…yet."

"I dunno…news travels fast." Monica sighed. "Should we risk it?"

"I'm hungry enough to risk it." Silver said as his stomach gave a loud rumble. "See?"

"In that case, Mark will get the pizza." Monica said. "Here's ten bucks. Get us a large supreme."

"What?" I demanded. "If we go out to get pizza, there's got to be at least two people at one time!"

"Well, I'm older, so I'm in charge." Monica said, crossing her arms across her chest. "So ha."

"Actually, you're not the oldest." Tails said. "Shadow is."

"Oh. Yeah." Monica growled. I smirked at her.

"So…who makes the rules now?" Silver asked, looking confused.

"If you want pizza, get pizza." Shadow said. He started to climb further into the tree. "I don't care how you do it."

"Ok. See ya, Mark." Monica threw me a ten dollar bill. "Remember: large supreme."

I grumbled a curse and then turned in a circle. "Um…how the heck do we even get to a pizza place?"

"Don't worry, we'll accompany you until we see signs of civilians." Silver said. "Then it's up to you. Don't fail."

There was a loud crack and Shadow fell out of the tree and hit the ground, cursing loudly the entire way.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that that tree is about dead." I said, beginning to walk in a random direction. "Are you coming or what?"

Everyone was obviously not passing up the chance of Earth pizza and followed closely.

Before long we heard signs of a road somewhere to our right. It sounded like a small road that lead back to some neighborhoods, not one that could lead us to pizza. Eventually the road's sounds faded and we were surrounded by crickets' chirps and squirrels running around.

"We're lost, aren't we?" Tails asked fearfully.

"I don't know." Monica said. "Mark, are we lost?"

"Yes." I admitted.

"Now what are we going to do for food?" Knuckles demanded.

At the mention of food, everyone's stomachs rumbled loudly. "I can't go on!" Silver wailed. "I'll die here and never see Mobius again! NOOO!"

"Aren't you a drama queen." Blaze hissed. "Relax, there's some berries over there."

"Are they poisonous?" Sonic asked.

"Why don't you eat a few and see?"

I went over to the berries and saw that they were blackberries, but only a few were ripe. I quickly gathered them up. "It's not much, but everyone can have three."

"I'LL TAKE IT!" Silver shouted.

Monica began dispersing the berries among everyone but Shadow refused to take them. "If anyone needs them, it'd be you." He said plainly. "I'll survive."

All the berries did was make us hungry-er. Now we were lost, starving to death, and with no sign of anyone else besides squirrels.

"This sucks." Monica confirmed.

"I can look for the way, if you want." Tails suggested. "I can fly above the treetops and see the way into town."

"Why didn't you do that sooner?" Knuckles demanded.

"Sorry…" Tails flew off and began searching for a pizza place.

We meanwhile decided to take a rest and sat down in a small circle. "So what happens after we get our pizza?" Sonic asked.

"Then we try to find Eggman." I said. "Or…maybe wait for him to find us."

"I'd rather find him." Blaze said. "That way we can have the element of surprise."

Tails came flying back. "If we go straight, I see some buildings."

"That's the town! Good job!" I said. "Come on, everyone!"

**A/N: Birds are annoying.**

**JET: hey! (Attempts to smack GhostKing upside her head with Extreme Gear)**

**GHOSTKING: I meant Earth birds! GAAH! Ok, bye people! I'm getting out of here! CHAOS CONTROL!**

**Yes, that's right. I can teleport. Never underestimate me ever again...**

**MONICA**

It was nearly noon by the time we heard traffic again. By this time Sonic had gotten so hungry that he started biting a stick and Silver tried to eat a rock. Both methods of food failed miserably.

"If we resort to cannibalism, we eat Knuckles first, ok?" Sonic said to Silver.

"Ok…" Silver's stomach rumbled loudly again. "I'm so hungry…"

"I can see the road!" Mark announced excitedly. "Oh, wait, maybe that isn't the best thing in the world…they might see us!"

We all backed up a few paces until we could no longer see the road. "Ok, Mark. See ya. Get the pizza." I said casually.

Mark growled something at me but I ignored it and found a rock to sit on. We waited a good half hour before he came back with a large pizza box.

"_FOOOD_!" Silver cried, lunging for the box.

Blaze grabbed his arm and held him back. "Silver, relax!"

Mark opened the box and counted softly. "Ok, there's eight of us, and there's eight pieces. They're not all exacally equal, but…."

He was cut off as Sonic grabbed the box, chose a piece and zoomed up a tree to eat in peace. Silver broke free of Blaze and grabbed a piece before stuffing the entire thing in his mouth and Knuckles practically did the same. Blaze, giving them disgusted looks, took a piece and wondered away from the group. Tails got excited, because it was his first time ever to have Earth pizza and it took him thirty seconds to pick his share. Mark picked a piece and handed the box to me. I had a choice between a puny piece and a piece that was a sorry excuse for a pizza slice. Not much choice.

"Um, who didn't get one?" I asked.

"Have both." Shadow said. "Those together would just barely equal a normal slice."

"You haven't eaten anything all day." I protested. "Come on, you're going to starve."

"I'll manage." Shadow muttered before finding a nice tree to lean against.

I sighed. "Are you sure?"

"Positive."

I was sort of too hungry to argue, so I didn't. The pizza was pretty good too. It had the right amount of cheese and sauce and peppers, mushrooms, sausage and pineapple. To think this entire thing cost ten dollars. Jeez. We'd run out of money by tomorrow.

"Yum." Silver announced. "Now what?"

"Look at this." Mark pulled a newspaper out from one of his pockets. He unfolded it and handed it to me. "Pass it around when you're done, ok?"

I took one look at the headline and sighed. "Good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

"Um…good news." Tails said.

"Good news is I now know where Eggman is." I said.

"What's the bad news?" Blaze asked, looking worried. "And where is he?"

"He's in Lansing." I said. "Stealing from banks. About a day's walk from here if we're lucky. The bad news is there's an article about us. Mark, I'm glad no one recognized you."

"Let me read it." Silver said.

I handed the paper to him and he began to read.

" 'Missing: Monica and Mark Cleveland.'" He began. "Your last name is Cleveland?"

"Apparently. Get on with it." Blaze said.

" 'What started off as a normal day quickly turned into a day of horror and worry for the Cleveland family. Identical twins Monica and Mark were kidnapped from their own home by what their father described as a "Snow-white alien with piercing golden eyes." Unfortunately, he was unable to describe the strange being further.

" 'The FBI and other organizations are on the case, but so far nothing has turned up other than evidence of them running into the forest. Police dogs are also being used to search for the children and the strange, so-called alien.'"

Everyone stood there.

"Cool, I'm an alien!" Silver said. "Oh, and there's more, but it just describes you two."

Blaze took the paper. "Are police dogs bad?" She asked.

"Well, if they really are using the dogs, then we need to get moving." I said. "They can track us."

"Where is Lansing?" Shadow asked. "Is it important?"

"It's our state's capital." Mark said. "So I guess, yeah. Come on, we live right sort on the outskirts of the place. We should reach it by tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Sonic said. "What if we get hungry again?"

"Then Monica pays." Mark said sarcastically.

"I have ten dollars left. If we can, we're eating apples or anything the forest provides, ok? It may not exacally be good, but it'll keep us from starving." I held up the money. "But I'm saving this for emergencies _only_ from this point on."

"Well, if it's a day's walk, we might as well get going." Sonic started speed-walking. "Come on, by the time we reach Lansing it'll be the middle of next year if you slowpokes don't start moving!"

We started off to the capital at a fast pace. That was when I decided to gather as much information as I could.

"What exacally happened before you guys come here?" I asked.

"Well, we were running through a forest clearing thing, and there were little red panel things on the edges of the clearing. We were all together, by the way." Tails explained. "We were wondering where the heck Eggman could be when we heard him laugh his maniac laugh and sure enough, there he was in his little hover thing above us, holding a large remote with a huge red button on it. He also had a couple of the Chaos Emeralds, too. So of course we knew that nothing good was going to happen."

"He had all seven, Tails." Sonic said. "So that makes it infinitively worse."

"Oh, yeah." Tails paled a little. "Ok, well, he laughed a lot and mentioned you guys and how we were going to see you again very soon and how he will have his revenge on you and us at the same time. Then he pressed the button and there was a bright white flash, and we were in your basement."

"Wait…" Mark stopped walking. "So you guys are here…Eggman and his little hovercraft…AND the seven Chaos Emeralds?"

"Oh, crap. I forgot about that." Silver muttered. "This is bad, right?"

"Beyond bad." Blaze summed it up.

"So now we got to worry about being caught by the police and/or Animal Control, our family, Eggman, finding the Chaos Emeralds, stopping him, and sending you all back." I sighed.

"Who knows, the list of 'Stuff to do' might get longer. Like finding food!" Knuckles suggested.

"Well, duh."

We walked on.

"I'm thirsty." Silver announced. "Let's take a break and find a lake. Hey, that rhymed."

Blaze gave him a sideways look. "Please stick to the situation at hand."

"No, actually right now is a good place to take a break." I said, smiling. "Look at that apple tree!"

"Wow!" Mark ran up to the tree and pulled an apple off of it that was slightly bigger than his fist. "This is awesome!" He took a bite. "And juicy!"

**A/N: Don't you just love Silver?**

**Anyway, apples are good. I'm really wanting one right now. Well, now that they know that Eggman has the seven Chaos Emeralds, this could complicate things even more. What will they do?**

**JET: I found you, you crazy author!**

**Aaagh, not again…*Dodges Gear and chucks apples while running away***

**MARK**

Between the eight of us, we practically ate everything on the tree.

"I've never felt so full in my life!" Tails said happily. "These are great!"

"I wonder how a tree even got back here in the first place." I wondered. "Maybe Johnny Appleseed."

"Yeah, maybe." Monica rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, we should probably keep going." I got up. "We need to reach Lansing as soon as possible."

We continued on. My feet ached badly, but I sure wasn't complaining. Silver was doing plenty of that, plus asking a million questions.

"I'm tried. Can we stop for a nap? Can I get a cookie? What time is it? What's the date? Where are we again? Why is this forest so long? Can I go back and get more apples? What if the police catch us? What will Animal Control do to us? I don't want to find out on second thought…and we're not animals! We're simply beings from another world. Jeez, this planet is creepy. Will they shoot us? What do the police dogs look like? What's crab like? What if Eggman lost the emeralds? What if we can't go back to Mobius? What if we're stuck here forever? What if someone dies? Why did your dad punch me? He seemed nice until he did that. I don't like him anymore. Can we try Chinese? Can I get a chocolate truffle? What IS a chocolate truffle, anyway? Are they made of chocolate? What's the square root of 45,483? Why is 42 the ultimate answer? How come Shadow gets to be the Ultimate Life Form and not me? Why is Sonic blue? Why is the sky blue? Why do blue tongued skinks have blue tongues? Blue in Spanish is azul! I think my boots are giving me blisters! Why is Shadow making that face at me?"

"Gee, I wonder why." Knuckles rolled his eyes while doing the throat cutting gesture.

"Silver, you haven't shut up for the past fifteen minuets." Blaze fumed.

"I'm just nervous." Silver muttered. "I don't like dogs and that's why you're my friend."

"Um…thank you…?"

"Plus I don't want Animal Control to catch us. They sound evil. Will they catch us and…and kill us?"

I was about to tell him that they probably wouldn't kill him right away, but after catching Monica's glare I kept my mouth shut. That glare clearly stated Tell-Him-And-You-Will-Have-A-Very-Freaked-Out-Hedgehog-On-Your-Hands-FOREVER.

"Is it getting dark, or is it just me?" Tails asked, looking up at the treetops. "How long have we been walking?"

"A good half of the afternoon." I said. "Pretty soon we aught to pitch camp."

"Should I go look over the trees for anything?" Tails asked.

"Probably." I said.

"I'll look for anything to eat." Sonic ran off.

"Come back with nothing and we'll eat you instead!" Knuckles called after him.

Blaze gathered up wood and rocks to make a fire pit while Monica looked at the angle of the sun as it shone through the trees. "It's got to be only around five." She announced.

"I don't care. I'll sleep till five in the afternoon tomorrow if I can." I announced.

There was a sharp call out in the distance. We all froze and listened. It came again and echoed around us.

"Was that…?" Monica's eyes stretched wide.

"..It was." I announced fearfully. "Police dogs. We need to get out of here…NOW!"

Silver didn't waste a second and was off running. Blaze scattered the fire pit (That luckily wasn't lit yet) and ran after him. Knuckles and Tails followed. "Come on!"

"How far away do you think they are?" Monica whispered to me.

"Not far." I answered. "Go on ahead, I'll catch up. I have to make sure Sonic makes it back here."

"I'm sure he can." Monica said. "Come on!"

Shadow stepped up beside me. "I'll wait for him. You two go!"

"He can teleport, Mark, he'll be fine too." Monica grabbed my arm and practically dragged me through the forest.

We ran for about ten minuets, nonstop. By the time we caught up to everyone else we were about ready to pass out.

"Where's Sonic and Shadow?" Tails gasped.

"Shadow's waiting…for Sonic…and they should…be here soon…" I managed to say between gasps. "Holy crap…I never should have quit…track…"

"What if they were caught?" Silver's eyes were so wide I thought that they were going to pop out of his head. "What if…what if Animal Control gets them?"

"Sonic and Shadow can take care of themselves." Blaze said. "If they don't meet up with us then that means either Eggman showed up or Sonic fell and broke his leg."

We didn't have to wait long. There was a streak of blue and Sonic appeared, looking terrified. "They…" He gasped. "They got Shadow."

**A/N: OH NOOOO! They got Shadow! What will happen? Without him they're without common sense!**


	2. The Forests

_**CHAPTER 2**_

**THE FORESTS**

**MONICA**

"They WHAT?" Everyone screamed. Silver broke down in tears.

"Yeah, back there…HUGE dogs! I can't believe it…" Sonic sat down heavily. "What will we do without-"

There was a loud cracking noise and Shadow appeared. "They're not far behind, we need to-AAGH! WHAT THE-?" He was cut off as Silver practically threw himself at him and gave him a huge hug.

"I thought you were dead!"

"Get off of me, you crazed psychopath!"

Meanwhile Sonic was cracking up. "I can't…believe you…fell for…THAT!" He laughed.

"That was your idea of a joke?" Blaze's whiskers caught fire. "You have more issues than I originally thought!"

I was pretty sure Mark would have paid money to be able to beat up his favorite-until very recently- game character. "Sonic, don't ever do that _again_!"

"Ok, but for real, we need to get out of here. They were close enough to Shadow that they could clearly see him, and they saw him teleport out…and I'm pretty sure they're headed this way." Sonic said.

"Do that again and I swear I'll wring your neck." Knuckles hissed as we all began to run again.

We didn't stop until it got too dark to see. Blaze quickly set up a campfire, but sadly, Sonic couldn't find anything to eat, so that meant that we'd be dreaming of food all night.

We claimed places on the ground and fell asleep.

I awoke in the middle of the night freezing cold and slightly freaked out, because someone had curled under my arm and was shivering so violently that I thought there might be an earthquake. I glanced at the campfire and saw that Mark, Shadow, Sonic and Knuckles were hogging the whole thing while Tails, who had that load of fur, was sleeping with his back against a tree. Blaze, sense she controlled fire, didn't seem to be effected by the cold because she was next to a rock that had to be as cold as ice.

I glanced at Silver, who's teeth were chattering so hard I thought they'd break and fall out. Poor guy. I unzipped my hoodie and spread it over him. Now I was so cold I thought my nose would fall off. I sat up and sighed, watching the quiet forest, waiting for any sign that something might be wrong.

Silver muttered something and pressed his back to my leg and nearly immeadentally stopped shaking. Oh, great, now I wasn't allowed to move until he woke up.

Something snapped somewhere to my right. I glanced in that direction and tried to make out if anyone was there. I couldn't see further than the rays of light that the campfire shed.

"Monica…?" I jumped as Silver muttered my name. "Monica…I want truffles…"

"Maybe later." I whispered, turning back to where the weird sound had come from. I nearly screamed.

There, not five feet from me, was the one who had caused all this in the first place.

"Eggman!" I more or less whispered.

"It's been a while, Monica." He said. "I've wanted revenge for quite some time."

"Actually, it was Mark's idea to tie you to the robot." I said lamely. "But if you're looking for revenge against me then it'd be for threatening you with your robot's own gun."

"I've got a score to settle with all of you, anyway." Eggman hissed. "What are you doing here, so far away from your home? Won't they miss you?"

"My main goal is to stop you." I said. "To stop you and put you in jail. Then send these guys back."

Eggman glanced at the crew huddled around the campfire and smirked when he spotted Silver curled next to me under my hoodie. "Touching." He sneered. "Won't you miss them?"

"Sure I will. But I won't miss your face, that's for sure."

"What if they never made it back?" Eggman asked casually. "What if…say…a certain someone went to the police and told them where you were and how dangerous those creatures were?"

I tried to hide my fear but failed miserably. "You…you…"

"What if this certain someone also found the wad of cash that someone else stole from the bank a day ago and described your kidnappers with perfect detail?"

"You wouldn't dare." I hissed. "Try anything, and you're dead."

"We'll see about that."

There was a sharp click from a tree. "That's the police. We've got you surrounded." Eggman snickered. "Give up and they won't harm your precious friends."

I held eye contact with Eggman while I nudged Silver roughly. "I can't trust you."

Silver moaned but didn't wake up. I nudged him again. "You probably told them some twisted lie." Silver groaned and his eyes flared open.

"Perhaps I did." Eggman admitted quietly. "But you'll never know, will you?"

Silver sat up suddenly, gave Eggman a scared, wide eyed glance and screamed, "WAKE UP! WE'RE IN TROUBLE!"

He did exacally what I wanted him to NOT do.

Within two seconds the police squad that had us surrounded moved forward so we could see them with what looked like dart guns and Tazers and those clear shields. Mark, Shadow, Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and Blaze were jolted awake instantly from Silver's yell and were on the defensive.

"Mark, Monica! Back away from them now!" One of the police guys commanded. "They're dangerous!"

Shadow stood in front of Mark bravely and Sonic backed him up. Silver scooted over by Blaze and glared at the nearest police guy. I was still sitting on the ground but I was giving (What I hoped to be) the evilest glare in the history of ever. "Don't shoot!" I shouted. I got up slowly. "Let me explain."

"The poor kids have been in the woods too long with these kidnappers! They obviously haven't eaten in a long time and it's effecting their judgment!" Eggman said. "Don't listen to them! Get them home safely and do whatever you want with the others."

"Not Animal Control…" Silver squeaked.

I shot Mark a glance. The glance was loaded to the brim with words along the lines of When-I-Say-So-We-Run-For-It-We're-Not-Going-Down-Without-A-Fight.

He nodded slightly.

"Mark, Monica, please back away slowly from those creatures." Eggman said gently.

"Oh, shut up." I muttered. I grabbed my hoodie from the ground and charged at the nearest police guy. "YAAH!"

Everyone else did the same. There were multiple firings of the dart guns and Tazers, but luckily no one was hit. We broke out of the small circle of people and ran for it into the dark woods. They were still shooting at us.

"Everyone form into a circle!" Shadow commanded. "We won't escape them unless we do this!"

Everyone quickly formed into a small circle. I could see flashlights from the police behind us. They were getting closer…

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

We were suddenly standing near a small stream what seemed like miles away from where we were standing a second ago. "Are we safe?" Blaze asked quietly.

"I sure hope so." Tails gasped. "That was too close!"

That was when Knuckles staggered to one side and fell. Mark was the first to reach him and pull out a small dart from his arm. "Crap." He muttered.

"We _almost_ escaped without anything happening." Sonic said. "Oh, well. I'm still tired. Let's sleep some more."

I don't know how everyone managed to sleep like that right on the spot(Except Knuckles because he got shot from the stupid dart gun thing). I was left to keep watch, without my hoodie because Silver nabbed it again.

**A/N: Wow, scary! So they met up with Eggman…finally…and he's still as evil as ever! What will the group do? And how the heck did he find them like that? **

**JET: Ha! There you are! You can't run forever!**

**GHOSTKING: Ok, you know what? If you don't want to be insulted in my stories, then stop leaving comments in the comments box! **

***Gets smacked upside the head with Extreme Gear***

**GHOSTKING: I HATE THIS JOB!**

**MARK**

I woke up when the first rays of sunlight filtered through the treetops. Luckily, nothing other than the light greeted me. I was more or less expecting the police again. Twice after we were nearly caught I dreamed we were captured, but both times I woke up with a start from the cold.

I sat up and stretched. Monica was leaning back against a rock and glancing around. She looked like she hadn't slept at all sense we teleported to a safe place. "Morning, Mark." She muttered.

"You didn't sleep?" I asked, getting up and brushing leaves off my back. "How come?"

"It's pretty obvious that we should have posted a guard." Monica sighed. "I don't know who was suppost to do it last night, but I'm going to drop kick them to Mobius without a portal of any sort."

"I think it was Sonic's watch." I muttered.

"Guess who doesn't get breakfast for the next five days." Monica growled.

"Wha…? Breakfast?" Blaze groaned. She sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "Did you get something?"

"No. I don't even know where we are." I admitted, looking around. "We could be in Canada for all I know."

"Canada's colder." Monica said. "Come on. Help me wake everyone else up, because we need to find out where we are and how to get where we want to go, pronto." She stooped down next to Tails and rubbed his shoulder. "Tails, wake up, we need to-"

"ARE THEY BACK?" Tails jumped up and flew about sixteen feet in the air and got tangled in some tree branches. "What's going on?"

"Relax! No one's around as far as I know. We just need to find out where the heck we are and which way to go." I said. "I think we should camp in Lansing until we come up with a plan."

Silver walked over to us wearing Monica's hoodie. "I like this thing!" He exclaimed. The ends of it came past his knees and the sleeves were so long that his hands didn't stick out of them. "It's like a giant blanket!"

"Give it back." Monica commanded.

Sonic came stumbling over, looking ready to fall asleep again. "Hey guys. Can we get pizza?"

"Heck no." Monica hissed.

Tails dropped from the tree branches and landed on my head. "Hi, Mark. Sorry."

"Knuckles won't wake up!" Blaze called.

I went over to where they were and shouted, "WAKE UP!"

Knuckles didn't even move.

"Well, this is great." I muttered. "Shadow, can you help us over here?"

"Mark, I seriously don't think I can." Shadow groaned, forcing himself to sit up. "Teleporting you all here last night…I don't think I can do that again yet alone go anywhere for a while…"

"I'll find food." Tails volunteered.

"We shouldn't leave the area here." Monica said. "And if we do, it's altogether. We can't risk being found again. Where exacally did you teleport us to?"

"It was only five miles away." Shadow muttered. "But taking you all along with me made it seem like five thousand."

"Five miles in which direction?"

"North, I think."

"If you sent us dead North, then I think we may be closer to the city." I said. Monica nodded. "So we only have about…how many miles again?"

"At least five more." Monica confirmed.

"This is great!"

"But in the meantime we can't do anything on account of two of our companions are weaklings." Sonic snickered.

Shadow gave him the evilest glare I had ever seen. "As soon as I get up I'll Chaos Blast you to the other side of this world!"

"Um, I don't think that'd be good, because people will see a giant explosion and come to check it out." I muttered.

Everyone sort of sat in a circle for a few minuets. "I'm so hungry…" Silver muttered. "What if three of us went to find stuff?"

"I don't know. If you're surrounded by a group of police guys, then I don't know what'll happen to you." Monica said. "How about this…If Knuckles doesn't wake up within the hour and Shadow still can't stand then I'll go look around. The police know that Mark and I are unarmed, and according to them we've been kidnapped. We won't get gunned down."

"Makes sense." Blaze said. "Why do you think Eggman chose to send all of us here along with himself?"

"To take revenge on all of us at once." Tails said. "I think he meant to turn the police and everyone against us so they could take care of us so we couldn't interfere with any more of his plans. To take revenge on you guys…He probably wanted you to watch it all happen."

"That's…that's cruel." Monica hissed. "Boy, if I ever get my hands around his neck, I'll…" Monica did a violent twisting motion with both hands.

"You tell him, Monica!" Sonic said.

Silver nudged Knuckles with his shoe. "Knuckles, wake up! We have chocolate cake!"

"That won't work." I said when Knuckles didn't move even when Silver was practically kicking him in the face. "We just have to wait."

"But I'm hungry!" Sonic's stomach rumbled so loudly I was surprised that Knuckles didn't move. "See? We're going to starve!"

"If it makes you happy, I'll look around." Monica sighed, getting up. "But only around here. If I lose sight of you guys then I'm coming back." She started walking away.

Shadow tried to get up but his left leg gave out underneath him and he lay there cursing loudly at both worlds, Eggman, the police, Animal Control, the seven Chaos Emeralds, the Republican and Democratic Parties, annoying birds, shoelaces, his leg, Chaos Control, and technology.

"Dang, I've never heard that before." Sonic cracked up.

"Shut up." Shadow hissed.

Knuckles twitched and he slowly opened his eyes. "I heard this really high pitched noise…" He murmured.

"That would be Sonic's laughing." Silver laughed so hard his face turned blue.

"What the heck happened…?"

"Ok, we were getting away from the police guys, and you got shot from one of their darts and slept a lot. Shadow used up all his power, practically, to send us here. 'Nuff said." Sonic explained horribly.

"Luckily no one died." Blaze said. "We were really lucky."

"Oh." Knuckles glanced around. "Why is it purple?"

Everyone looked where he was looking. "I don't see any purple." I said.

"No, see? Right there, the purple TV…"

We looked again, but there was no purple TV. "Uh, Knuckles…?" I asked.

Knuckles started snoring again. I sighed. "Great."

Monica returned a few minuets later with something cupped in her hands. "Well, I learned this a long time ago, even though it grosses me out." She uncupped her hands and we saw what she was holding.

"WORMS!" Silver yelled.

_**A/N: WARNING! GROSS SCENE AHEAD!**_

"Yes, worms. They're a good source of protein." Monica cringed. "And right now I'm pretty darn hungry."

"I'll take it." Shadow volunteered. "I'm so hungry I'll eat that rock over there."

I'll put it this way…after watching him eat the worms I wasn't hungry anymore. Neither was everyone else. Apparently this was Monica's plan: watch someone eat worms so we never want to eat again. I must say, it worked out pretty well.

"If I had eaten anything I would have thrown it up by now." Silver curled into a ball and began rocking back and fourth. "I'm not ever eating again. I'm scarred for life…"

"They're actually not that bad." Monica said, eating a worm like one would eat spaghetti. "At least it's food."

"Yeah_, BIRD_ FOOD!" Tails said loudly. "I've heard of 'The early bird gets the worm', not 'The early human gets the worm'."

"Oh my Gah they're moving in my stomach…" Monica's face turned green. "Oh my Gah, oh my Gah, oh my G-" She turned her head to the side and threw up the contents of her stomach, which wasn't that much. The two live worms she ate crawled underground and were gone.

Silver pretty much passed out and Sonic turned green. "That…is…disgusting…"

Apparently no one in the group could stomach live worms because thirty seconds later Shadow threw up too.

"Ok, I'm getting pizza." I volunteered.

"No thanks, I'm good." Tails muttered, looking sick.

Shadow lay on the cold forest floor, shaking and shivering violently. "I don't…I don't think I can g-go anywhere t-today…"

"Me neither." Monica groaned. "I have never felt so bad in my life…"

"Wait a second." Tails said. "What if we get a Chaos Emerald? It should help everyone feel better, and Shadow can get more power from it so we can continue on."

"But we can't just split up." I said. "Last time it was nearly a disaster."

"But if we don't, then we'll be stuck here for a long time. The police might find us again."

I started getting some horrific images in my head of all my friends captured and brought to a lab, and…

"No, if we go anywhere, it's as a group." I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts away.

"You m-might as well go on w-without me." Shadow said. "I don't t-think I can stand yet a-alone walk…"

"We might have to, Mark." Blaze said. "If we do, then I'm willing to stay behind and guard."

"All in favor of splitting up to find a Chaos Emerald?" Monica called.

Silver, Shadow, Blaze and Tails raised their hands.

"Opposed?"

Monica, Sonic and I raised ours.

"Knuckles would have to vote." I said.

"I favor staying together as a group." Sonic said in a high pitched voice.

"You fail at ventriloquism, Sonic." Monica said.

"Hey, Knuckles, wake up." Tails nudged Knuckles with his shoe. Knuckles groaned and opened his eyes. "What do you possibly want?"

"Should we split up to find a Chaos Emerald or stay together as a group?" I asked.

"Chaos Emerald." Knuckles yawned. "Yeah, Cha….os….Emer….ald…" He started snoring again.

Monica turned to me. "So we have a decision."

**A/N: EWWW WORMS! Ok, well, I hoped none of you threw up there. Sorry, I had to do that. It was one of those random ideas I have and I just couldn't pass it up. **

**JET: You mocked me….: ( Not all birds eat worms!**

**GHOSTKING: Wave does.**

***Dodges Extreme Gear and counters with worms***

**GHOSTKING: EAT THIS!**

…**.So now begins the search for the Emerald…**

**MONICA**

The groups went like this: Staying behind in the forest: Shadow, Knuckles, Mark and Blaze. The group that was looking for a Chaos Emerald (Or seven) consisted of Silver, Tails, Sonic and I. It was a pretty good split up.

"We'll try to meet you at the edge of the forest sooner or later." Mark said. "just in case you get lost."

"99.12% chance of that happening." I sighed. "Come on guys. I want to reach Lansing soon."

So my group moved out of there and towards the unknown.

"What's Lansing like?" Silver asked. "Is it shiny?"

"Um, some of the buildings are…" I said. "But other than that, it's not shiny. It's sort of a big city if you've lived where I had all my life. I don't like crowds that much."

"Where do you think a Chaos Emerald is?" Sonic asked.

"Eggman's got to have all of them, right? And he works with the police here now, I guess, so maybe at the police station?" Tails suggested.

"I don't know, I was thinking of some sort of lab or something." I said. "They may be trying to harness the power."

"That could be bad." Sonic shuddered. "Yeah, we're all gonna die."

We walked on for about an hour until we came to the forest's end. Beyond the trees I could make out a highway thing that lead into the city. We were close.

"We just need to cross the highway and enter the city." I said. "But the thing is we may have to wait until nightfall until we do anything."

"I can wait." Tails said.

So wait we did.

Eventually I couldn't take it much longer and when it finally got dark enough so I couldn't see Sonic sitting next to me I said, "Let's move."

"So what the heck are we going again?" Silver asked.

"We sneak into Lansing and find an abandoned building or something. We make that our base, and then we sneak out to find Emeralds." I said. "I think I know where a building is, too."

We ran to the highway and began running along it in the darkness. Twice a car came and we hid in the trenches next to the roads until the cars passed. We made it into Lansing within about half an hour.

"Ok, stick close to me and the alleys." I suggested, leading the way into a dark alley. There were some trashcans in our way, but Silver used his psychic powers to move them. We emerged out of the ally near a boarded up building.

"Does that look good to everyone?" I asked.

"Sure." Tails said. "As long as the police station isn't around."

"It isn't." I assured. "They're across town."

I kicked the door down and we entered into what used to be a dusty business building. I quickly put the door back and we began to look around.

"Not bad." Silver muttered.

"Ok, now that we know where we need to go and stuff like that we should start looking." I said, heading back to the door. "Maybe we should pick up a paper and see if there's anything that can help us."

We entered back on the streets again and headed back to the ally. Tails found a paper and handed it to me. The headline blared: MISSING and went on to say an updated version on our disappearance and how 'the strange alien creatures were holding us captive against our will'. There were descriptions of us too. They were so accurate it sort of scared me.

"There's an article on Eggman." Sonic said. "It says he's working with the police and your parents to find you."

"Working with my parents?" I grabbed the paper. "That jerk! How did he convince them?"

"I don't know, but that really worries me." Sonic muttered. "It seems like the whole city is against us."

"Does it say anything about the Emeralds?" I asked, speed reading to the extreme.

"I don't think so. I didn't see anything about them."

I continued reading for about thirty seconds. "There's something about them." I said. "It just says that Eggman has seven strange jewels and how everyone thinks it suspicious. And it goes to tell how he's staying at the police station until this crisis is over!"

"So that means we have to go into the police station." Silver's eyes got wide. "But…but what if they catch us?"

"You're always welcome to stay here. _ALONE_." Sonic said in an emphasis.

"No, thanks. I'm coming." Silver squeaked.

"I think we should spend the night in the office building, then." I said. "We'll come up with a plan in the morning."

We turned and headed back to the building

**A/N: Well, what do you think 'll happen? SUSPENCE!**

**JET: STOP MOCKING ME!**

**GHOSTKING: Ok, jeez! I said that about fifteen times! Go away before I get a Restraining Order against you!**

**MARK**

We had been hanging out in the forest all day doing nothing, practically.

It was fine and all, but hunger was beginning to gnaw away at me again. I thought if I didn't get any food soon my stomach would dissolve itself.

Knuckles was finally awake and sane, which was a good sign. The bad news he had some sort of reaction to whatever was in the dart and his eyes swelled up. So he couldn't see and it sort of worried everyone.

Shadow, on the other hand, had fallen asleep about five hours ago and hadn't woken up yet. Even though he had been constantly saying that he wasn't hungry before, I sort of knew. And I feared if he didn't get something to eat soon he'd go into some sort of coma.

Blaze had searched the area of the forest we were in so many times I couldn't count, but every time she showed up with nothing. I reached into my pocket and drew out the ten dollars that Monica had given me. She thought I'd need it more than she did, and I think she was right.

"The only way we're going to get any food is if we start walking towards Lansing." I sighed. "I don't think we're going to last much longer out here."

Blaze nodded. "Should we start now?"

"Probably." I grabbed Knuckles' arm and hauled him to his feet. "You can walk, right?"

"Yeah, but I can't see a dmn thing!" Knuckles hissed.

"That's why Blaze is here. She'll lead you away from trees and rocks and branches and things like that." I said, kneeling down next to Shadow. "Hey, can you hear me?"

When he didn't respond I grabbed his right arm and threw it behind my neck and dragged him up from the ground.

** (A/N: IF THERE'S A BLACK LINE HERE, IGNORE IT!)**

"Ready?" Blaze asked.

"Yep." I said back. We began walking.

Within half an hour we had to stop, partly because Knuckles twisted his ankles and mostly because I couldn't figure out how to carry Shadow because he kept poking me with his quills. He had hardly moved through the entire mini journey and I was beginning to get worried.

"I hope we find Lansing soon." I sighed, looking over the treetops. The sun was beginning to sink below the horizon. "I don't care if I'm recognized, because once we reach the place I'm buying food and water bottles." I had just barely finished that sentence when I realized how thirsty I was.

"Why did you have to mention that?" Blaze hissed.

"I don't know!" I hissed back. "Now I'm annoyed at myself!"

"Who isn't?" Blaze muttered under her breath.

I growled at her and stared at the treetops. "What I would give for something to eat…"

"If we resort to cannibalism we eat Shadow!" Knuckles said loudly.

"We're not eating anybody!" Blaze and I shouted at the same time.

"You know what? We aughta keep going. We need to get as far as we can." Blaze said. "We can't afford to stop like this."

"You're right." I sighed. "Let's go."

We walked until it was too dark to see anything. We pitched camp under a tall tree and Blaze lit a fire. The swelling in Knuckles' eyes was beginning to go down so he helped gather firewood nearby. I tried and failed to wake Shadow up. By this point in time he had almost stopped moving completely and reacting to anything.

"So we move out in the morning, right?" Blaze asked.

"As soon as the sun's up." I confirmed. "Hopefully tonight will be nice and warm."

Little did I know a frost was moving across the land that night.

**MONICA**

I woke up the next morning to find that Silver had stolen my hoodie off of me sometime during the night. That explained why I was so freaken' cold. It didn't explain why he was using my arm as a pillow.

"Ok, this is weird." I scooted over in a corner and tried to go back to sleep but a sudden sound prevented me.

I held my breath and listened. The sound came again, and I recognized it was the sound of boots scraping across the cement steps outside the building.

As quietly as I could I crawled over to the others and shook them awake roughly. "Wake up! Someone's at the door!"

"Then open it…" Sonic muttered.

"It's the police!" I hissed. "We need to get out of here, NOW!"

I ended up picking Tails up and wrapping him around the back of my neck like a bizarre scarf and darting into the other room with the others; now wide eyed and awake; right behind me.

"There's stairs!" Silver pointed. We began to climb them, and not a moment too soon.

There were some calls from outside the building and the door fell off its hinges. I didn't stop running. When we reached the second floor we quickly found a window that lead onto the roof and climbed onto it. Tails was beginning to wake up and wonder why the heck he was draped around my neck and we were running for our lives.

We hid behind a chimney and I quickly explained.

"Oh, wow, that was close." Tails' eyes got wide. "So they're here? How'd they find us like that?"

"I don't know, but we need to get out of here."

Silver's stomach growled loudly. "Can we eat after that?"

"I thought you never wanted to eat again." Sonic said.

"Well, that was yesterday. I think I dropped ten pounds and I need to eat a lot!"

"You need to eat a lot? I can run faster than sound! Guess how many calories I need in a single day!" Sonic said.

"Well, I'm psychic! I need a lot too!"

"We'll argue over this later, ok?" I hissed. "See that rooftop over there?"

"Yeah?" Tails asked, sitting next to me.

"We have to jump." I said. "The police'll find us on the roof sooner or later, and luckily it's not that bright out yet."

"You're crazy." Silver glanced to the other rooftop. "That's a long way."

"You can levitate yourself! Why are you scared?" Sonic demanded.

"I'm afraid they'll shoot at us!"

"They won't." Tails said. "If they have anything, it's a dart gun. They want us alive."

"So they can kill us in terrible ways." Silver squeaked, wrapping my hoodie tighter around himself. "I don't want to die."

"I don't either. That's why we've got to jump!" I pointed to the window to see a policeman's figure cross in front of it.

Tails simply flew over and Sonic did this weird moon jump thing. Silver ran like his shoes were on fire and crashed onto the other rooftop. I took a running start and jumped.

I wasn't going to make it.

My fingers scraped the drainpipes and I managed to get ahold of it. But there was no way I would be able to pull myself up. I heard a shout from the house behind me.

"Monica! Come on!" Sonic shouted. "I know you can do it!"

My left hand slipped. "DOES IT LOOK LIKE I CAN?" I screamed. "Someone help!"

Silver reached down, grabbed my left hand, and pulled me onto the rooftop.

There were more shouts from behind us and I saw the police begin to gather on the roof. One of them drew some sort of gun.

"They've got guns!" Silver shrieked, and as I watched, all of the police gathered on the rooftop slid to one side of the roof and one by one dropped off.

Silver stood there, looking horrified. "Did…did I do that?"

"Silver, they weren't even going to shoot at us!" Tails yelled. "Now they'll kill us for sure!"

"I'm sorry!" Silver shouted. "But luckily, none of them died! Only one broke their leg!"

"How did that happen? They fell from the second floor!" Sonic yelled.

"I'm psychic, don't argue with me!"

"We'll argue later!" I yelled. "Right now we need to work on roof hopping!"

We continued with that sort of travel for the next ten minuets before we reached the downtown area. We slipped off the roof we were on and hid in an alley.

"Something smells good…" Silver said, looking around. "But there's only a dumpster here."

"We are behind a Starbucks'." I said.

"STARBUCKS?"

Before I could stop him, Silver opened the dumpster and drew out a paper bag full of something oval shaped and covered with sugar.

"What has become of us?" Tails sighed as we ate two day old doughnuts. "We rely on the alleys for food."

"It's good food!" Sonic said.

I found a plastic cup that looked clean enough to drink out of and put it under a water spout. Pretty soon it was filled with the morning dew stuff, but I didn't complain. I downed it in three gulps and the others did the same.

"I feel like I could run a marathon!" Sonic announced.

"That's because you ate the doughnut that was covered with the powdered sugar." Tails said.

"So now what way to get to the police station?" Silver asked.

"It's down the street a little ways, and then to the left." I said. "The probablem is getting there without being spotted. We could wait until the traffic goes away, or we can run like heck and try not to get captured."

"Running like heck sounds good!" Sonic started shaking. "Wow, sugar rush!"

"It's because you haven't eaten anything decent in a while and you're getting all hyped up from a doughnut."

"Maybe we should wait." Silver said, glancing out from behind the dumpster and quickly hiding again. "There's already a crowd out there."

"Ok, then." I said. "If you want to sleep, then fine. I'll keep watch until I can't keep my eyes open anymore."

**MARK**

I woke the next morning to find my breath billowing out from my nose and mouth in great clouds. I was shaking so hard I felt like my eyes would fall out of my head and I couldn't feel my fingers, ears, or nose. Blaze was huddled next to me, but instead of the normal warmth she always carried she too was freezing cold. Knuckles was next to her with his teeth chattering so loudly I was surprised the police didn't find us that way. But the one I was worried about the most was Shadow. He wasn't even shivering.

"S…Sh-Shadow?" I thought my tongue was frozen too. "Sh-Shadow? A-are y…you ok?"

Blaze tried to summon a flame to her hand but the only thing she succeeded in was making a brief flash of sparks and smoke. She tried desperately again.

"Shadow..?" I nearly yelled. I began to rub his arm furiously, trying to warm him up. "Shadow, wake up!"

There was a soft poof and Blaze held a small flickering flame in her hand. Knuckles handed her a piece of dried wood that hadn't been effected by the frost and she lit it. The little flame, even though it was tiny, was a great relief. Knuckles began to sort through some sticks nearby and made a small campfire pit. Soon we had a fairly decent fire, just enough for all of us to begin to get warmer.

"Shadow won't wake up." My voice cracked. "I..I don't know if he's breathing!"

Blaze threw more leaves into the fire and it flared up brighter and warmer. She then went over where I was kneeling over Shadow. He didn't react in the slightest.

"Is he ok?" Knuckles asked.

Blaze felt for his pulse and announced, "I don't know. We all need to find something to eat and drink soon, or he'll die."

"What do we do?" I sighed. "Lansing is who knows how far off…we might not reach it by tomorrow!"

"It looks like you have no choice, then."

Blaze, Knuckles and I spun around at the voice that seemed to come from nowhere. There, standing with a group of police officers that looked like the ones from two nights ago, was Eggman. "Surrender and come with us and we'll save his life."

Blaze barred her teeth. "You wish." She hissed.

The police began to surround us. I noticed this time they were carrying real guns. No Tazers or darts this time.

"I won't go down without a fight." Knuckles declared.

"That would be an unwise choice." Eggman smirked. "As if you try anything, then your other puny group will be killed."

"You wouldn't." I hissed.

"You're right, I wouldn't." Eggman said. "So only three of the four will die. You have one guess on who'll live and watch."

I felt anger burn inside of me. "Don't you dare…!"

"I won't if you give up. We'll take you where you can get some food, water and warmth…also revive your friend."

Blaze gave me a glance. "We might have to." She whispered. "Shadow won't last much longer if we don't."

Knuckles nodded. "And besides, Monica and her group is still safe, I know it. If they were captured, he'd bring proof. They'll get the Emeralds and break us out of wherever they're taking us."

I then made the hardest decision of my short life. I turned to Eggman and nodded. "We'll go with you."

Instantly two policemen came and handcuffed Blaze and Knuckles. They were lead away from me by two other policemen with long rifles. I carefully scooped Shadow up in my arms and stood up. "How long do we have to go?"

"It's not far." Eggman assured.

Shadow twitched in my arms and moaned quietly as if to tell me I was making a terrible mistake. I tried to ignore that thought and followed the police through the woods to where a few spacious police cars were parked. Blaze, Knuckles and I were all herded into separate vehicles. One of the policemen tried to take Shadow from me but I recoiled from him. "No, he stays with me." I said firmly.

"But what about all this grief they put you through?" The policeman asked. He couldn't have been more than eighteen. "They're the cause of this."

"That's what you've been told from someone other than me or my twin." I said. "It was all lies you were told. Eggman framed them so they can get killed and-"

I was interrupted as a policeman motioned for me to be quiet and get in the car. I did, but only because they had weapons.

We rode for about fifteen minuets in the overheated car. But to me, it felt like heaven. Feeling was beginning to come back into my feet, hands and face. I suddenly felt extremely tired.

We reached a small boxy building, but I couldn't tell what the sign next to it said. I was marched out of the car and into the building, where I was greeted by two people I didn't expect to see.

"MARK?"

I nearly dropped Shadow. My mom and dad came running at me. "You're alive!"

"Mom, Dad, you've got to listen to me!" I pleased quietly. "They're not what they've told you they are. They're helping me stop him!" I pointed to Eggman, who was talking to a couple of officers. "He's the real villain!"

I must have looked pretty pathetic; dirty, still slightly shivering, pale, and carrying one of my best friends that was close to death. My mom glanced at Shadow like he was some sort of murderer and backed up slightly. "Mark, you've been in the woods for too long. They're dangerous! I know you want to help, but you can't."

That was when Blaze and Knuckles were marched into the building, both with their heads down looking worried and sad. A officer dug the butt of his gun into Knuckles' shoulder blades and he nearly fell. He turned and tried to get at the officer, but Blaze hissed something at him and he glanced my way.

"Hey, Mark. Sorry." He muttered.

"They can talk too?" My dad gasped.

"Of course they can." I retorted.

A tall young girl wearing surgical scrubs walked over to me pushing a small gurney. Her name tag read Olivia. "You can put him here." She said softly, motioning to Shadow.

"What are they going to do to him?" I asked.

"I don't know. I'm only working volunteer hours here." The girl's eyes got wide. "But if there's anything I can do, I'll do it. I don't trust some of the officers here."

Once Shadow and the girl were around the corner my mom and dad both hugged me at the same time. Tears welled up in my eyes. "Why don't you pay us any attention at home?" I whispered. "You…you didn't care about us."

"Oh, honey, we did. We _do_." My mom began to cry too. "I just didn't think it would come down to this to get us together as a family again."

"What about Monica?" I asked.

"We'll find her soon." My dad promised. "The police promised to double the search efforts."

My stomach leapt into my throat. Oh, crap. Her group had better hurry it up and get the Emeralds, soon, or…who knows what'll happen…

We waited there for who knows how long. I lost track of time. The only thing that mattered at the moment was I was with my parents and that Monica was still out there somewhere. We still had a chance.

"Mr. and Mrs. Cleveland? Can you sign some of these papers and have an interview with a few news reporters?" a camerawoman came over to where we were sitting. My dad and mom left my after giving me one last hug.

I was left sitting there on one of the uncomfortable couches in the station's main lobby. My parents began to tell the cameras how we had been kidnapped and dragged away.

_Lies_. I thought bitterly. _All lies_…

"I'm betting you want to know where your friends are."

I jumped at Eggman's voice. He was standing over me, smirking. "So?"

"What's going to happen to them?" I demanded, standing up as tall as I could. I just barely reached his shoulders. "Tell me!"

"Well, I'd have to show you." Eggman sneered. I thought my stomach just about dropped down to my feet. "Don't worry, nothing's been done to them…yet…"

I sighed slightly. "So where are they?"

"Follow me."

We went down one of the hallways past a closet that held extra surgical scrubs and supplies. Just the sight of that made me pale. What was a closet like that doing in a police station…?

We passed a few rooms, but they were darkened and the doors were closed. We finally came to a door at the end of the hall. Eggman opened the door and motioned for me to go first.

"Mark!"

I turned to see Blaze and Knuckles in some sort of cage. It was too small for both of them. I ran over to them. "Guys! Did they hurt you at all?"

"Just that guy with the stupid gun." Knuckles growled. "Other than that, I'm fine."

"But the weird thing is we can't break out." Blaze said. "I can't burn the bars away and Knuckles can't get enough room to punch his way out."

"Just sit tight for now…I'll get us all out of here sooner or later." I said so Eggman wouldn't hear me. "But if they try to do anything to you…kick, bite, scream, anything. I'll hear you and try to help."

"I don't know if you could, Mark." Blaze said. "They're taking you out of here in half an hour. This isn't the police station, as I'm sure you've noticed. This is a research lab."

I felt like I had just gotten slapped. "I should have taken the hint!" I hissed. "Do you know what they plan to do to you?"

"No, but I have some pretty scary thoughts." Knuckles sighed.

"Where's Shadow?" I asked.

"They took him into the room over there." Blaze pointed to the east side of the room. "And then I didn't hear or see anyone come out of there sense."

"I swear I'll be back, ok?" I said. "Sit tight."

I turned to Eggman. "Where's Shadow?" I demanded.

"Only authorized personnel is allowed behind that door." He said smugly. "And you're not authorized, are you?"

"I just want to know he's ok." I felt fake tears filling my eyes. I felt stupid. "If this is the last time I'll ever see him…"

Eggman got a guilty look on his face. He was evil enough to side with the police and convince them that my friends were dangerous, capture us, bring us to a lab and lock two of them up…but he wasn't evil enough to deny a kid fake-crying his request.

"If you're quick about it…." He sighed. He went over to the door, entered a code and opened it. "Five minuets."

I entered and was greeted by six scientist/doctors who immeadentally demanded identification. Once I told them why I was here, they nodded reluctantly and lead me down a hall.

** A/N: Oh noes, one group captured! What will happen next? What do you think happened to Shadow? What do you think 'll happen to Blaze and Knuckles? Will Monica's group succeed in getting the Emerald(s)? Will they put a stop to Eggman's deranged plan like they always do? Find out in the next chapter…**


	3. The Lab

_**CHAPTER 3**_

** THE LAB**

** MONICA**

We waited behind the dumpster all day. Finally it was dark enough to get going again. Our stomachs were all growling loudly, but we were forced to ignore them.

"So if we continue down this street here we'll eventually come to another road, which 'll lead us to the police station." I said.

"Ok, I can live with that." Silver said. "Can we go now?"

We began to carefully make our way down the street by hopping from one dark alley to the next and hiding behind buildings. We slowly but surely made our way down the place.

"This is taking forever." Sonic said impatiently. "Can we go faster?"

"If you want to get captured, then by my guest." I hissed. "We're nearly to the other street."

It went smoothly until we crossed over to the other street. I was running from an alley to an alley opposite me when I literally bumped into a police officer. He looked at me for a long time and then said, "You're that Cleveland girl, aren't you?"

"Uh, no, I have no idea what you're talking about!" I began to back up. I hoped the others had hidden themselves. "I'm just trying to get to my friend's house!"

The officer pushed me gently to the side and walked towards the alley I was trying to back up to again. He gave a loud yell and reached for his nightstick.

Silver scurried out of the alley and nearly ran into me. Tails flew wide eyed away from the policeman and Sonic backed away slowly. The guy glared at all of us for what seemed like forever.

"Back away from Monica, right now, or I'll seriously hurt you." The guy warned, raising his nightstick over his head. With his other hand he pulled a gun out of its holder.

Sonic backed in front of me protectively, even though I was in hardly any danger. Tails went pale but he went and stood next to his hero, looking as brave as he could manage. Silver backed behind me and started tugging on my sleeve. "We could run for it…" He suggested.

"But he's got a gun." I reminded him.

"Last time, creatures! Back away from her!" The policeman cocked the pistol.

"No, sir, please listen to me!" I pleaded. "They're not what you think they are!"

"I know exacally what they are!" The man shouted. The pistol shook in his hand. "They abducted you and your brother and we're here to stop them and bring you safely back home!"

"No, sir, we teamed up to stop a madman!" I said loudly. I nudged Sonic and Tails to the side and stepped bravely up to the policeman. "They're harmless!"

The policeman glared at them all in turn, trying to believe me. While he was distracted his gun flew out of his hand and hit the sidewalk with a loud clatter, thanks to Silver. We all took that as a signal to run, which we did.

"Get back here!" The policeman shouted, but we were long gone. I could hear him barking orders into a radio as we ran.

"Now how far to the station?" Tails asked.

"Not far. We should reach it in about…now." I ducked behind an alley and they followed me. "It's right up the road about three buildings down. Now do we have a plan?"

"Break in, get the Emeralds, and get out." Silver said. "That plan works for me."

"What about the security and the fact that we've never been in the place?" Sonic reminded him. "What about that?"

"We'll just have to wing it." I muttered. "We still have time tonight to break in."

"Then let's do it!" Tails said. "The others won't wait forever!"

"Then let's go." I said, tugging the hood of my hoodie over my ears. "Get in, get out, we survive. Sound like a plan?"

"Yep."

** A/N: So they begin the invasion process!**

** JET: ANOTHER BIRD JOKE! WOULD YOU STOP?**

** GHOSTKING: What the heck did I do this time?**

** JET: You said you'd wing it! That's a crack at me **_**again**_**, isn't it?**

** GHOSTKING: No, I just thought of that at that time, and..oh, never mind! Get out of here! Go race someone! Just go away!**

** …**

** MARK**

The scientists lead me into a small room that looked a lot like something out of a terrible horror movie that took place in a hospital. It was dark, small, and nearly everywhere you looked there was some piece of equipment or some cabinet loaded with what looked like blood. One of them gave me a pair of latex-free rubber gloves.

"What's this for?" I asked.

None of them answered me. They just stared at me until I put them on. It was very unnerving. After I put the gloves on I opened a door at the end of the room and I stepped foot into some operating room.

There was a bright spotlight-like light that was directed straight down on a small operating table. Lying motionless on the table was Shadow. Thick metal restraints were wrapped around his ankles and wrists, but I doubted the scientists even needed that precaution. On one side of the table was an IV drip that was flowing into Shadow's left wrist. His entire body was covered in sensors and wires that lead back to a large machine that had many different weak lines crossing its screens.

"What did you do to him?" I demanded.

"It's stable." One of the scientists said. "That's all that matters."

"He's not an 'it'!" I nearly yelled. "What do you want to do with him?"

"We do what we're told to." Another scientist said almost without any emotion. "We get orders and we carry them out."

"What do you plan to do to him then?"

"Dissection."

I nearly fell to the cold marble floor. "You…you can't!" I managed to say in a hoarse whisper. "I won't let you!"

Suddenly strong arms grabbed me from behind and began to lead me to the door. "No! Let me go!" I shouted, but whoever it was was too strong.

I was deposited out of both rooms and next to Eggman, who was standing there looking more evil than I had ever seen him.

"You…!" I lunged for him but the scientist held me back. "How could you do this?"

"Consider this my revenge." Eggman said so evilly I nearly shuddered.

"…!" I couldn't think of any words to describe my anger and hatred.

"Take him back to his parents." Eggman said. The scientist began to drag me off towards the lobby.

I eventually gave up struggling against the scientist's unnatural grip. "You've got to stop this." I pleaded. "Don't kill him."

"We do what we're told." The guy said emotionlessly. "And we were told to dissect that creature for science."

We had reached the lobby and my parents came over to where the scientist and I were. "What did he do this time?" My mom asked worriedly.

"Nothing. I was just told to bring him back here." The scientist let go of my arm and walked back down the hall.

"Mom, they're going to kill them!"I nearly shouted. "they're going to dissect one of them, and I don't know about the others' fate!"

"That is very inhumane…" My dad muttered, but my mother was deaf to our reasoning.

"They asked for it, honey. That's what they get."

"No, mom!" I hissed. "They didn't mean any harm! They. Were. My. Friends." I said slowly.

My mother still didn't listen to me. She turned to see Eggman walk into the room with a huge evil smile on his face, but she failed to see the evil part of it.

"Aren't you going to dissect him?" I demanded angrily. "You're so twisted and wrong. How can you live with yourself?"

"Mark!" My mom and dad yelled at the same time.

"Now I suppose I owe you all an explanation on what we plan to do." Eggman said, the evil grin vanishing. "We're simply going to….what's the phrase…? 'Put them to sleep'."

I wanted nothing more than to punch him. "Liar!" I nearly yelled.

"Would you look at the time?" Eggman glanced at a nearby clock. "We've still got some unfinished business here, so we'll continue in the morning. But why don't you all come back to the police station and you can stay there for the night?"

"It sure is closer…" My mom said. "Ok, but just for one night."

I wanted to scream until I realized that the police station was where Eggman was also staying, and he had the Chaos Emeralds with him. I would be able to search the place…hopefully…

I didn't want to leave my friends but I had almost no choice. I would just have to hope that the scientists didn't start experimenting or anything on Shadow before I got back.

** A/N: Ooooh… horror and suspense! Don't you just hate Eggman? After writing this I wanted to punch him too.**

** JET: For once I have to agree with you.**

** GHOSTKING: Good. Lend me your Extreme Gear for a second…**

** *Smacks Eggman upside his head***

** MONICA**

The lights were on in the station but there was no one in the main lobby. We all rushed in and hid behind some couches.

"Ok, we shouldn't split up, just in case." I said. "Because if we do and someone gets caught, then we're all done for."

We popped out from behind the couches and headed for a hallway. There were some small closets along the way, but nothing that indicated a stairway or elevator to get up to a second floor.

"Wait, right here!" Tails said, opening a door and reveling some stairs.

We climbed up the flight and entered the second floor. There were six doors spaced an even twenty feet from each other along one wall and six on the other side that matched the others.

"It looks like some sort of apartment complex thing." Sonic remarked. "I don't know about you, but I don't think any Emeralds are around here."

"Wait…" Silver shut his eyes and held his hands, which were now glowing a bright blue, out in front of him. He began to stagger down the hallway like a sleepwalker.

"Um, Silver?" Tails asked.

"Don't distract him." Sonic said.

Silver walked down the hall for a few more seconds and stopped in front of the third door to the right. "They're in here." He said. "I'm sure of it."

The door was designed like a door at a hotel. You would need a card to scan so it'd let you in. Sadly, we had no card.

"I can take care of that." Silver said.

There was a click. I tried the door and it opened into a one roomed hotel thing. A soft glow came from the closet nearby. I opened it and stepped back. "Hey, guys, found them."

Sonic, Silver and Tails rushed over and nearly shouted. "We found them!" Silver cheered. "We did it! Now we can go back to the others, and-"

He was cut off by loud, heavy footsteps. We spun around to see five police officers come barging into the room, all of them armed with nightsticks and guns. "Monica, are you ok?" One of them asked.

"I'm fine, please put your guns down!" I said.

"Back away from her, creatures!" Another of the policemen commanded. Tails grabbed my arm and didn't let go.

"I said back away!" The officer raised his nightstick and took a step towards him. Tails let go of me and backed up slowly.

"Monica, come here please."

I glanced from my friends to the police. "We'll be fine." Sonic muttered. "We'll rally together soon."

I stepped towards the police and one of them lead me to the door. "Wait! What about-" I was cut off as the remaining officers charged at my friends. I heard Tails shriek and he came flying out the door and into my arms.

"Monica, help!" He squeaked as a officer pulled him away from me and cuffed his wrists and ankles. Tails tried to take a step but fell on the floor and curled into a small yellow ball.

"What are you doing?" I broke away from the policeman and rushed back into the room. I was just in time to see an officer bring his nightstick down on Sonic's side. Sonic groaned and didn't resist the officer as he cuffed his wrists and ankles too.

"What are you doing?" I screamed. "Don't hurt them!"

"Monica, they're dangerous!" The officer that lead me to the door said. "Come on, down to the lobby. Your parents are coming soon."

"Monica!" Silver shouted. "Monica help! Please! Don't let him hurt me!"

The policemen looked surprised that he could talk, but that didn't stop them from cuffing Silver all the same. He and Sonic were more or less dragged/marched out into the hall.

The police officer lead me down the hall away from them and down towards the lobby. "What are you going to do to them?" I demanded.

"Nothing. We're not in charge of that." The officer said.

"Who is?" I asked.

"It's classified."

When we reached the lobby I was greeted by my twin brother's shocked and worried face.

"I'm sorry, Mark." I whispered. "But we know where the Chaos Emeralds are."

"Monica, they're going to dissect Shadow."Mark gasped. "Sometime tomorrow. We've got to save him and the others!"

"This keeps on getting worse…" I sighed.

My mom and dad came over and there was a huge family hug thing that you can usually only find in movies. We stayed like that for a few minuets. I couldn't remember the last time our parents had hugged us, but even though I should have been pretty happy over the whole situation, I wasn't. I was scared.

My life was anything but a movie.

**MARK**

We were given two room upstairs next to each other. Monica and I had one, and our parents had the other.

"So what happened?" I asked slowly. I sort of feared what Monica was about to say.

"We managed to break into Eggman's place here." Monica began. "We found the Emeralds, but then the police showed up and they were captured. What happened with you?"

I quickly told her what Eggman planed to do and what sort of fate Shadow was in store for. Monica sighed heavily. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know." I admitted. "We need an Emerald, or better yet, all seven."

"Eggman's place is literally across the hall."

I gave Monica a long stare. "Are you nuts?"

"Probably. But we can get all seven, go back to the lab place thing, sneak in, disguise ourselves, and get everyone out!"

I thought about the million ways the plan could go wrong. "Mom and Dad would notice we're gone eventually."

"That's why we've got to be quick about it." Monica crossed to the door and looked out the peephole. "No one's there. Plus it's about midnight, Mom and Dad won't notice until morning."

She unlocked the door and stepped out into the hall and crossed to the door opposite us.

"Wait, what if he's in there?" I demanded.

"So? If you're not helping, go back." Monica glanced at the lock. "Get me a screwdriver."

"Where would I get one of-"

"In the drawer next to the sink. I saw one earlier."

I quickly went back to the room and returned with a small screwdriver. Monica carefully pried the plastic covering off the key card slot and then found a screw to undo. Within seconds, the lock was deactivated and the door opened slightly. Loud snoring came from the room.

"Even if we did make noise he wouldn't hear us anyway." I snickered.

Monica slipped into the room and I closely followed. She lead me to a small door that had a slight glow around it. She opened it and we came face to face with the seven Chaos Emeralds.

"Quickly."

I stuffed two in my pockets and grabbed two more. Monica did the same only she just had to carry one. We inched back towards the door and out into the hall. Monica shut the door.

"I'll be right back. Then we get out of here." Monica went back into our room and returned with a small bag. "We can put the Emeralds here until we need them. Come on."

We took off running down the hall as quietly as we could. We reached the first floor and I glanced warily around. No one was there, except for a guard asleep on duty.

"We have to move fast." I whispered. "And quietly."

We tiptoed to the door and nearly as silent as a mouse slipped out into the cold dark night.

"The lab is this way." I pointed. "I memorized the way, just in case."

We took off running, fueled by anger, worry and adrenaline. We only stopped twice on the way to catch our breath and we continued until the small boxy building appeared in front of us. We hid away from the windows and doors.

"We need a plan." Monica said.

I thought for a second, and then it hit me. The only probablem would be getting in without getting recognized.

** MONICA**

Mark finally risked peeking into the window. He ducked back down and said, "There's someone there, typing something. We need a distraction."

"I can do that." I smiled smugly.

The guy typing at the computer didn't know what happened. One second everything was calm and peaceful, and the next, nearly all of the windows shattered. He jumped out of the chair he was sitting in and ran outside, armed with a flashlight. "Who's there?"

Mark and I snuck into the building and down a hall until we came to a closet that was full of medical supplies, including what we needed.

"Here, put this on." Mark threw me a long white lab coat, a weird hairnet thing that you see doctors wear sometimes, and a surgical cloth mask thing like you see doctors wear when they're operating on someone. After I put it all on, Mark remarked, "Wow, I can't recognize you, except for the hoodie. You'll have to leave it here."

I dropped the hoodie behind a case full of something. "So I'll try to find my group, and you get yours?" I asked, my voice slightly muffled behind the mask.

"That's the plan. And don't give yourself away." Mark pulled on a lab coat, a hairnet and a mask too. "We're tall enough to pass for adults, but we have no ID."

We carefully exited the closet one at a time. "Oh, one more thing…" Mark muttered. "There's a room in the back that requires a code. That's where they're keeping Shadow. In case you need to know the code it's 6045. Don't forget it."

I handed Mark the bag of Chaos Emeralds. I reached in and grabbed one and put it in my pocket. "I have a feeling you'll need more than me, so take six."

Mark nodded and hung the bag from one of his belt loops. "It's not that obvious, is it? The bag?" He asked.

"Not if you walk sideways forever." I smiled worriedly.

"Good luck, Monica." Mark said, turning to run down the hall towards the locked door.

** A/N: Wow, that was short. Anyway, this is pretty much near the climax, but there's more action, horror and suspense on the way! Oh, and the code for the door is sort of a thank-you to Storm 337 for writing awesome stories that I like a lot. If you guys get a chance, go read their stuff, you won't regret it.**

** MARK**

I punched the code in quickly and opened the door, but only to be greeted by a scientist trying to go the way I had just come from.

"No one is allowed back here until the dissection." The guy clearly stated.

"Except me." I said boldly, standing as tall as I could. I reached into one of the huge pockets on the lab coat and felt my fingers brush something that felt like an ID. I flashed it quickly before the guy could get a glance at it. "Let me in."

The guy didn't argue and stepped to the side to let me in. "Sorry, sir."

"You'd better be." I hissed, trying to sound and act like one of them. Hopefully I wasn't as pitiful as I sounded.

I opened the other door and entered into the small operating room. Surprisingly, no one was there. I quickly ran over to Shadow and reached into the bag. "Shadow, can you hear me?" I asked desperately.

Shadow didn't move and I pressed an Emerald into his hand. The effect was blinding.

I staggered backwards as a huge flash of light engulfed the room. I dropped the bag of Emeralds but they seemed to hop out of the bag and drift over to where the light was strongest. Then just like that it was over.

I glanced around the room to see that some of the lights had blown out and sparks were raining down from the ceiling. The bright spotlight thing above the operating table was flickering weakly and then went out altogether. Most of the equipment had been blown back into the corners of the room and were sitting there, smoking. The IV had been ripped out of Shadow's arm and he began to bleed.

"Shadow?" I asked slowly. I was afraid that at any second a group of guards would come tearing into the room and surround me.

Shadow was still holding one of the Emeralds, but when I said his name he twitched and the Emerald fell to the floor with a small plink. He opened his eyes weakly and glanced in my direction. "M…Mark?"

"We need to get out of here, now." I said quickly, unlatching the restraints on the table. "I don't know if they'll send anyone to check this out, but-"

I was cut off as the door opened and smacked the opposite wall so hard pieces of plaster fell to the floor. About twenty guards ran into the room, all armed with rifles that were aimed at me and Shadow. "Who are you?" One of the guards demanded.

Another guard ran over to me and tore the mask thing away from my face. A couple of the guards looked surprised and a bit confused. "I thought you were at the police station!"

"I was, until I came here to rescue my friends!" I said bravely. "You've been lied to thousands of times! How can you believe-"

One of the guards began to gather the six Emeralds up. "How'd you get these?" He demanded.

"Wouldn't you like to know." I hissed. "Let my friends go and I might tell you."

A few scientists pushed their way into the room and got a load of the condition the room was in. "What happened?" One of them demanded.

"That's what we're trying to figure out." A guard responded.

Shadow sat up and held his bleeding arm tightly. "Mark…get out of here…" He growled. "I can get out of here myself…"

"How did he wake up?" the guard next to me shouted. "I thought you told me that you had him completely under control!"

"You did until I showed up." I shouted. "Let him go!"

The guard instead rammed the end of his gun into Shadow's head. I reacted without even thinking. I grabbed the front of the gun as the guard raised it to deal another blow and we began a deadly tug-of-war; which I would end up dead in if I wasn't the stronger and braver one.

"Let go or I'll shoot!" The guard shouted.

"NO!" I kicked at his kneecaps and he nearly fell backwards. I had the gun in my hands, but I didn't know how-and didn't want-to use it.

"Mark, put the gun down." A guard commanded. I turned to face him and gave him a glare. "I won't until you all do."

The scientists dropped to the floor and surrendered immeadentally. The guards didn't budge. I glanced back at Shadow, who was now bleeding from a gash in his head along with his arm. The guards took advantage of my distraction and grabbed the gun out of my hands. "Mark, please exit the room. Now."

I couldn't make a move as two strong hands closed around my arms and dragged me out of the room.

** A/N: 0_o I scared myself again by writing this late at night. In the dark. Clock says 11:45 PM. Help. Zzzz…NIGHTMARES!**

** MONICA**

I headed down a random hall. I had no idea where everyone was and how to get there, so I figured I'd better explore a bit. Hopefully no one would recognize me or wonder why a scientist was wondering the halls looking lost.

I entered a unmarked door and found a small room filled with odds and ends. The most effective item I saw on sight was a small dart gun that had at least six shots in it. I grabbed it and put it in my left pocket, hoping it would come in use later. I exited the room quickly and continued walking down the hall like nothing had happened. I hoped against hope that there were no security cameras.

I was about to enter a door that looked suspicious when it flew open and a guy with blonde hair that stuck straight up nearly ran me over. He backed up in surprise, as did I. He had wire-rimmed glasses that looked a bit big on his face and ice blue eyes that seemed to stare into my soul. He was dressed similar to me minus the hairnet thing and his surgical mask was hanging from his neck.

"You don't need the hat, you know." He said with no emotion. I quickly took the net off. "You're here for the experiment, right?" he asked.

"Yes." I said automatically.

"Good. Take this." He handed me a small box with a red button on it. "Press it for two seconds if it tries anything. Come on in."

I took the box and stared at it with wonder and fear. What did he mean by that? I had no choice but to follow the spiky-haired guy into the room. I reminded myself that no matter what happened I would act like one of them.

The door lead into a medium sized room that was occupied by three other scientists who were carrying clipboards and scribbling madly; the icy stare guy, and an operating table. Once I saw who was on the operating table I nearly dropped the weird box thing the guy had given me.

Silver was restrained by metal bars that were welded to the table and twisted around his ankles and wrists. A weird looking band of metal was wrapped round his forehead with two wires connecting the metal to a small machine behind the table. Silver's eyes were half open but he didn't seem to be taking in his surroundings.

The blue eyed scientist-who from now on I'll call Ice- went over to a small supplies table in the side of the room and drew out a syringe filled with something clear. He injected whatever was in it into Silver's arm.

"Remember, any sign that he uses his powers to break out of here and you press that button." Ice commanded, seeming to glare into my soul and see who I really was.

"Yes, sir." I said instantly. I put my hand and the remote thing in one of the oversized pockets on the side of the coat to hide it from view.

Silver's eyes flared open and he glanced around. Once he realized where he was he started struggling violently against the metal restraints.

Ice gave me a look and mouthed, "Press it."

I pressed it after a slight hesitation and sigh.

There was a slight buzzing sound and Silver shrieked. His shout took me by surprise and I lifted my thumb off the button. My knees felt weak and my eyes got wide.

Silver's eyes unfocused and he stared at the roof, drawing in deep breaths. The three scientists with clipboards scribbled faster, if possible.

"I know you can hear and understand me." Ice spoke so suddenly that I nearly jumped.

Silver tilted his head to look at him but he didn't try to struggle. "In fact, you can even speak, can't you?" Ice continued.

I realized that my nails were digging into my palms so hard I thought I drew blood. I unclenched my fists and bit my tongue, trying not to let my emotions reach my eyes. Luckily I was still wearing the mask thing, so Ice couldn't see my teeth barred in a snarl.

Silver made no sign that he had heard Ice and turned to face me with his golden stare. _Silver, It's me!_ I thought wildly, hoping he could read my thoughts. _Don't give me away! I'm sorry, but I'll get you out of here!_

"Where did you come from?" Ice demanded, still glaring at Silver. "Who are you? If you won't answer, then fine." Ice glanced at me again.

I couldn't believe what I was doing. I stared at the ground and pressed the button in a short two second burst.

I thought my heart would break when I heard Silver's screams. Tears blurred my vision and I didn't look up until they cleared away. Ice was standing beside the table with a small smile playing on his lips.

_The sick wretch_! I thought furiously. I wanted to run over to him and teach him a lesson.

"Who are you?" Ice demanded.

Silver's eyes were barely open now. His breathing came in short gasps and he began to twitch. He moaned but didn't say anything.

"Fine then, have it your way." Ice went back to the small supply table and unclasped a small case. He drew out a syringe that had to be as long as my hand from wrist to the tip of my middle finger. It was filled with a bright red substance that looked a lot like blood. The needle was longer than my thumb and thicker than a normal needle. I watched in horror as Ice brought it over to the operating table.

"This is what we've been working on lately." Ice said matter-of-factly. "Tiny, tiny robots we call Nanobots. They're so small that a red blood cell would be as big as the world is to us."

Silver glanced at the long syringe and shuddered. Ice smiled a humorless smile. "They were originally going to be used for cleaning up the rivers and streams that were polluted, but our top scientists thought that that would be a waste."

I wondered how the heck that could be a waste. With every passing second I wanted to strangle Ice more and more.

"So after careful research, development and experimentation, we came up with the hypothesis that they can be used to control someone so they could do anything another asked of them." Ice continued.

Silver's eyes got wider. I could plainly see the fear in them.

"That's right." Ice hissed dangerously. "We found out the nanobots flock to two of the most vital organs in anything's body. The heart and brain. The ones in the brain will force you to tell us everything we want to know. If, for some reason, you resist them, then we have a special remote that will command the nanobots clustered around your heart to begin eating through it. Nothing has ever survived resisting. Ah, yes, the experiment is nearly completed. We just need to complete the final test…"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

Silver started struggling against his restraints with a renewed will to live. Ice glared at me again and I was forced to press the button.

Silver cried out in agony as another jolt tore through his body. I was nearly to the point when I would run over to Ice, smack him to the 'other land down under', and then knock the other scientists to Kingdom Come.

"Oh, don't worry, it doesn't hurt much." Ice assured in a horrifying voice. "Just a few seconds of pain, and then you never have to worry about it again."

"N…no…no…p…p…please…" Silver shook violently. "….no…."

"A little too late to bargain for that." Ice sneered. "You had your chance to talk."

"...N….no…"

Ice parted Silver's fur at his neck. "Just think, after this, you'll work for us." He said evilly. "You'll be one of us…"

Silver tried to break away from Ice's grip but he couldn't. Ice drew the syringe closer to his neck. I felt fury and anger well up inside of me. I put my hands in my pockets and drew out my dart gun.

POP

With one shot, Ice was unconscious and lying on the cold floor. Three other pops quickly disposed of the three scientists with clipboards.

I dropped the gun, threw the remote with the red button at Ice's face, tore the surgical mask away from my face and ran to Silver.

"Silver, it's me, Monica! I'm so sorry…I had to act like one of them until I got the chance to strike…"

"M..Monica…" Silver's eyes unfocused. "I knew…you'd come…"

I ripped the restraints and metal band off of him and gently picked him up. Silver buried his face into my shoulder and shivered from the cold table and fear. I reached for my fallen gun and then ran for the door.

** A/N: OOOOOH MYYYYYY GAAAAAAAAAAAH! THAT WAS **_**TOO**_** CLOSE! CURSE YOU ALL, YOU EVIL SCIENTISTS!**

** Wow, I was practically screaming, "NOOO! THAT CAN'T HAPPEN!" When I re-read this. I scared myself a lot.**

** Also Ice is based on someone I used to know. Someone…sort of like that. Well, just the evilness of the guy. I hate him.**

** Ok, well, one more chapter to go! Will they escape the lab? Will Mark get his group out of there? Will they all get back to Mobius? Will…ah, just read to find out! I'm probably boring you with these author's notes.**


	4. The Final Countdown

_** CHAPTER 4**_

** The Final Countdown**

** MARK**

I was lead back to the room outside the locked door. I glanced around for Blaze and Knuckles, but I didn't see them. Where were they?

"How'd you get here?" The guard demanded. "Don't bother lying."

"I came back to help my friends." I hissed. "You know that this is wrong!"

"I'm not even suppost to be caught up in this business." The guard confessed. "But one thing lead to another, so here I am."

"Where are the other two that were in here?" I asked, pointing where Blaze and Knuckles' cage used to be.

"I don't know. All I know is that this is a lab and a lot of things can happen here." The guard said. "And a lot of bad things, depending on your point of view."

"What's the worst thing you can think of?" I demanded.

The guard thought for a second. "If you compare your friend's fate in there to this, then you start to realize he's lucky."

"What is it?" I screamed.

"When they dissect him, they're going to knock him unconscious. I've heard that sometimes they'll dissect something without killing it first, or even giving it any painkiller."

I thought the room suddenly got a lot darker. I sat down on the ground heavily. "When has this happened?"

"I don't know, about a year ago."

"Why'd they do it?"

"For their own sick pleasure." The guard shuddered. "They'll see how long something can live while in that sort of pain…how long it's heart will last before giving out…and then they dissect the heart."

I thought I was going to throw up. I began to rock back and fourth on the ground, trying to distract myself. But terrible images began to scroll though my mind…

"Mark…" The guard said sharply. "I know for a fact that that's not going to happen to anyone."

I took a deep breath. "It better not…" I gasped. "These scientists… they're so_…emotionless_…like a Vulcan."

"I heard it was because of a experiment gone wrong." The guard said. "Something about emotion control and most of them now have no sense of humor or any other feelings."

I sat there for a few seconds before I risked it all. "Can you help me?" I asked slowly and sincerely. "I won't be able to do this myself."

The guard stared down at me. "After talking to you, you've certainly changed my mind on how I saw things."

"Can you help?"

"I'll probably get fired…"

I got up and wrapped my arms around the guy. "Thanks so much. You have no idea what this is like; watching your friends go through this."

"Yeah…I can imagine." The guard mumbled. "My name's Leonard. Leonard Devin. Call me Leo."

"Ok, then, Leo. We need to free my friend in there. His name's Shadow. And also there was a purple cat who's name is Blaze, and a red echidna named Knuckles." I said. "Our main concern for right now is probably Shadow."

"Got it." Leo said. "How are we going to get him out of there?"

"I don't know." I shrugged. "But do you know when they plan the dissection?"

"At about noon tomorrow." Leo said after a pause. "But I'm not exacally sure."

"In that case, we have a bit of time." I said. "We'll look for Blaze and Knuckles in the meantime. If we run into anyone, say you're taking me somewhere."

Leo nodded. "This plan is actually a pretty ok plan." He said.

"Thanks, I work hard on them." I said sarcastically. "Oh, and Monica's here too, helping her group escape. So if you see a lost girl wondering around, it's probably her."

Leo nodded again. "I'll remember that."

"Come on. Do you have any idea where to start looking?" I asked.

"Probably in one of the smaller research rooms near the front of the building…" Leo started, but I was gone in a flash.

"Wait!" Leo ran after me. "I thought we were going to stay together!"

He caught up with me as we came to the front of the building. I randomly chose a door and tried the knob. It was locked. I tried looking into the frosted glass, but I couldn't see anything. Leo whispered, "Over here. I found one that's unlocked."

He opened the door and entered with me quickly following. Near the back wall in a cage that was too small for him was Tails. He glanced warily at us as we walked in but then instantly brightened up. "Mark!" He said, looking surprised. "How…did they get you too?"

"No, we're getting you out of here." I examined the lock on the cage and after a sharp twist, it fell away from the door, broken. Tails kicked the door open and stretched for a few seconds. "That was too small…" He muttered.

"Come on, we need to get out of here as fast as we can." Leo said from the doorway. "Someone may be coming."

"Do you know where the others are?" I asked.

"I don't know. We were all taken to separate rooms, and then this girl came in and asked me some questions but I didn't answer her. She said she was sorry that this had to happen to us…"

"She was against this place?" I asked as Leo, Tails and I ran down the hall and into a closet. Someone walked by outside.

"Very." Tails said. "She was wearing a name tag and it said her name was Olivia."

Leo poked his head outside the door. "No one's there." He informed us. We snuck into the halls again. "Mark, if you ask me, you should get him out of here." He pointed to Tails. "If anyone sees us, then they'll know I'm now working for you."

"Did Monica have a base anywhere in the city?" I asked Tails.

"There was an old abandoned place down the street…" Tails said.

"Then go there. Or if you want to, fly up to the roof and watch for anyone that may leave the building and lead them to the place." I said.

"I can do that." Tails said.

"Good." Leo said, opening a door and entering into a small room with a window. "Here's your way out." He shoved the window up and Tails flew out of it. "See you soon, Mark." He said before flying straight up.

"This is great, one person saved." Leo muttered. "How many left?"

"Five." I said. "What time is it?"

"About six in the morning."

We had six hours to save everyone and get Shadow away from the crazed scientists, or less once our parents noticed we were gone. We had six hours or less to save everyone and burn this place to the ground. We had six short, measly little hours.

This was gonna be great.

**A/N: Wow, action. The name Olivia is a name I like a lot, and all the Olivias I know are really nice, so kudos to them. : ) Anyway, back to the story…**

** MONICA**

I didn't know why the heck I didn't run into any people in the halls. By now I should have been dead. I mean, is it not suspicious when a scientist is running down the hall, wearing no ID, looking freaked out, and carrying a strange, unconscious creature in her arms? Not at all.

I had no idea where to go, or what to do. I knew that Mark was on the job too; trying to break the others out. But I could hardly do anything while Silver was unable to move.

Wait…what about the abandoned office place? I could dump him there and then continue with breaking the others out. It was a very risky plan, but I had to do something before the scientists caught me.

I tried a door and it opened to a small office. A window faced an alley. Perfect.

I opened the window and glanced around. To my right was the main street and to my left a brick wall. I gently set Silver on the floor and I climbed through the window. When my feet touched the street I reached back into the window and dragged him out.

Now I just had to get back to the building. I walked to the end of the alley and glanced around. Surprisingly, no one was there. I began to run.

I heard a strange flipping noise behind me. I sped up, no longer caring about stealth. Someone was chasing me, that was for sure. I wasn't about to give up Silver.

"Monica!"

I stopped so suddenly whoever it was slammed into my back and nearly shoved me over. I spun around to see Tails sprawled out on the sidewalk. "Owww…"

"Sorry, Tails! How'd you get out?" I asked quickly.

"Mark came. What happened to Silver?" Tails asked.

"It was terrible." I gasped. "I watched it happen. They were going to test something they invented on him. Nanobots."

"Is he ok?" Tails asked, wide eyed.

"I think so." I said. "I'm taking him to the place we spent the one night in."

"I was waiting on the roof to keep watch." Tails said. "If you want me too, I can take him up there. It's actually safer than the old office."

"Ok, but be careful." I said. We more or less ran back to the lab.

Tails gently flew Silver onto the roof and gave me a thumbs up. "Keep up the good work, Monica!" He whispered.

I made my way back to the alley and slipped back into the window. After waiting by the door for a few seconds to make sure no one was coming, I opened it and darted into the hall.

A bright yellow sticky note caught my eye. I glanced at it, noticing strange symbols and designs on it.

Elvish writing.

Mark and I had developed a secret code back when we were eight. Sense we loved the Lord of the Rings movies, we learned the Elvish alphabet. No one has been able to crack our code yet without the decoder, but once we both memorized the code we ripped the thing up.

_Monica, deadline at 9:00. Get everyone out by then. We're going to light this place up. Found a store of rubbing alcohol; burns easily. _

I sighed and then darted around to find the nearest clock. It read 6:34 AM. Not much time, if you ask me. I took off running down the hall, knowing that if things went smoothly, we'd be cutting it very close.

I stopped in my tracks as I heard a soft sound, like shoes shuffling across a carpet. I stood still and waited.

A door opened ahead of me, but no one exited. I took advantage of whoever was coming out of the door to hide in a doorway and wait for whoever it was to pass by. I didn't have to wait long. As quietly as he could, Knuckles crept down the hall past me.

"Knuckles…" I whispered.

He spun around but realized it was me. "Monica, don't ever do that again!" He hissed. "I almost attacked you!"

"Sorry, but if you want to get out of here without being spotted you'd better exit from this room." I pointed down the hall at the room I had entered and exited the building from. "Tails is on the roof with Silver, watching for anyone who escapes. How did you make it out, anyway?"

"The last person in the room must have forgotten to lock the door again. I had to wait a while until I thought everyone was gone." Knuckles said.

"Was her name Olivia?" I asked.

"I think so." Knuckles said, looking surprised. "Why, is she working for us?"

"I think so." I replied. "Now you'd better get out of here. At nine in the morning we're going to burn this place."

Knuckles nodded, and headed toward the door that would lead him out of the horrid lab. "Good luck." He muttered.

"Yeah, I'll probably need it." I replied.

** MARK**

Leo and I ran into two people in the halls, but they didn't give us a second glance. To them, I was being lead back away from all the horror.

Heh, they thought wrong.

"I honestly don't know where to look." Leo whispered to me as we tried a door, but it was locked. "If we just go door to door like this it could be a huge timewaster and people might get suspicious."

"We have to risk it." I sighed, trying another door. "Ugh, if there was a map I could look at… this might go a ton faster."

Leo opened a door and found another door, this one demanding an ID card swipe. I pulled the ID from my pocket. "Hopefully this person has access back here." I swiped the card.

The lock clicked and the door unlatched. We entered into a small dark room that, for light, had a computer monitor that was on the darkened setting.

"Um…hello?" Leo called softly.

"Who's there? Don't hurt me! I'm sorry! Go away!"

I nearly jumped out of my shoes when I heard the voice. Then another thought came to me. "Leo, shut the door!"

Leo and I quickly stepped into the room and he shut the door softly. We didn't move as we waited to see if anyone had heard.

After about thirty seconds of no movement in the halls we began to breathe again. I walked over to the computer and hit the a random key. A brighter light filled the room and I could finally look around.

The room had a small counter thing in one corner with a few cabinets over it. Nothing was on the counter except for a small stack of papers. The room was eerily bare besides the thing I just described, a desk, computer and chair, and a thick barred cage in another corner.

Leo knelt down and glanced into the cage. "Mark, I think I found another of your friends."

"Mark?" I was relieved to see that for the most part, Sonic was ok. "How'd you get back here?"

"Long story that I'll tell you later." I said, looking at the lock on his prison. "Leo, can you look in the cabinets over there for anything that could break this?"

Leo walked over to the counter and began looking around. "Are you ok?" I asked Sonic.

"Yeah, they didn't do anything to me…yet. They kept saying that I'd be perfect for something, but they never told me anything, and then you showed up."

"Ok, great." I glanced over to where Leo was rummaging. "Find anything yet?"

"Not yet." Leo muttered.

"Ok, you need to get out of here as soon as you can after you leave this room." I said. "Tails is on the roof, and he'll bring you up there. But as soon as everyone's rescued then we're going to burn this place to the ground."

"Good idea." Sonic said. "And then what?"

"No clue."

"Sounds like a plan to me."

"Here." Leo threw me a small hacksaw thing. I wondered and feared why it was in this room that wasn't a workshop in the first place. Oh, well. I wasn't complaining. Sonic was out of there in a matter of seconds.

"Your best bet is out a window somewhere. Don't take the main entrance or exit." I said.

"You're not coming with me?" Sonic asked.

"No, we're on a deadline on burning the place. You'll be fine, right?"

"You bet."

Leo opened the door and stopped suddenly. "What's that smell?"

I inhaled deeply and nearly gagged. I said 9:00 for the fire, right? Then why did I smell and see small wisps of smoke floating in the hall?

An alarm screamed. Something fell.

"Oh, crap!" I muttered. I darted into the hall. "What's going on?"

"No time for that now! We've got to get out of here!" Leo pointed down the hall. "It's the main lobby, but it's the only way as far as I know right now!"

We darted through the lobby, but no one was there. We ran onto the streets and that was where we ran into the probablem.

Nearly all the scientists and people that worked in the building were there, loudly exclaiming how the fire wasn't their fault and that there were still people in the place.

_ There were still people in the place_!

"MONICA!" I shouted. "I think she's still in there!" I glanced to the roof but I couldn't see my friends. I hoped that they had gone to the old office building.

"Hey!" Leo, Sonic and I spun around to see the scientists closing in around us. "How'd he escape?" They demanded, glaring at Sonic.

"Sonic, there's an old abandoned office building down the street a little ways. Go there, because I think that's where everyone else is." I said quickly. "Don't argue, just go."

Sonic gave me a thumbs-up. "See you soon, Mark." He was off.

"He got away!" Someone yelled angrily.

I turned to face the building again. Something told me that Monica was in there. I shouldn't just be sitting here doing nothing! She was my twin!

"Mark…!" Leo yelled, but I was darting into the building.

**MONICA**

I found another quiet hall. No one was down there. It was eerie.

I tried the first door. Locked.

Same with the second, third and fourth, not to mention the fifth on down. I hoped Mark had some luck getting everyone out. I just wanted everyone able to run out of here when the 9:00 hour came, both my friends and the scientists that worked here.

The tenth door wasn't locked and it took me slightly by surprise. I slowly pulled it open and entered into a large, cold room. Was it just me, or was there blood on the floor? I sure hoped I was overreacting.

I began to glance around, but nothing seemed to be of importance until I found another door. Thinking it was just a storage closet, I opened it anyway.

There were three short steps leading down to another hallway. I quietly and anxiously followed the hall to another door. I tried the handle…

…Locked.

I swore under my breath. All that for this? I shoved my hands in my pockets and my left hand brushed something.

I pulled out the Chaos Emerald I had completely forgotten about.

"Right…" I turned to look at the door again. "Maybe this thing can let me in…"

The door clicked suddenly. I tried the handle and it opened into a very small room consisting an operating table, some huge stacks of paper, and a cage on top of the table.

Curled in the cage, fast asleep, was Blaze.

"Yes!" I hissed. "This is going great!"

I used the Emerald to break the lock away from the cage. I nudged Blaze. "Hey, wake up!"

She didn't do anything. I nudged her harder. "Blaze!"

"AAARRGH!"

I fell backwards onto my butt. Fire flashed around me, catching the stacks of paper. They burned quickly, but then found another source of fuel…the plaster.

"Monica!" Blaze said in disbelief. "How'd you get here?"

"No time for that now! This place's on fire!" I scrambled up. Blaze hopped down to the floor and we both ran out of there as fast as we could.

A few scientists did double takes as we ran through and then followed us. Good thing they did too. When I glanced back down the hall, I thought I saw the flames getting through the door.

We burst onto the street. "There's an old abandoned building down the street. Go there! That's where everyone is!" I shouted.

"Wha-?" Blaze started, but I was already running back into the building. I hoped against hope that she listened to me and turned back.

The hallway was quickly filling with smoke. I found myself running down the nearest hall until I came to an unlocked door. I opened it, ran into another room, and found a door requesting a code.

"What's the code? What's the code?" I screamed. I held the Emerald out in front of me. "Come on, break the lock!"

The lock and the Emerald didn't do anything. I thought back to what Mark had told me about the lock at the end of the hall…something about Shadow…

I thought I heard someone whispering to me. I tried to drone out the noise in the hall outside the door as people realized the place was on fire and listen.

_ 6045_

I had no idea why a little voice was whispering numbers at me, but I listened to it and punched it into the keypad.

The lock clicked and opened. I quickly ran into the small operating room.

Shadow looked awful. He was deathly pale and a thick bandage circled his head. He was lying strapped to the table, but I thought that that wouldn't be needed. I began to unlatch the restraints.

"What are you doing?"

I nearly screamed. I spun around to see Ice, standing erect by the door like he owned the place. It was a possibility he did. "Weren't you the one who knocked me out?"

"Yes, and I'll do it again." I drew out the dart gun from my pocket. "What are you doing here?"

"You have one guess."

As if on cue, about twenty guards came pouring into the room, guns at the ready. "Monica, come with us."

"In case you haven't noticed, this place is on fire!" I yelled. "We all need to get out of here!"

"I don't know, I like the sound of you dying in here, trying to save one of the cruel, terrible creatures that had stolen you away from your life." Ice's eyes gleamed dangerously. "What do you think?"

"I think you're a quack and should get out of here." I said, keeping the gun aimed at him. I forced my arm to not shake. "Because if I die, I'm taking you with me."

"We don't have all day." Ice sneered. "The fire' ll reach here eventually."

"True."

We stared at each other for what seemed like a full twenty minuets. I could now smell the smoke as it burned its way through the building. We would either have to leave now or die.

Unfortunately, Ice seemed to be thinking that exact same thing. "Barricade the door." He told one of the guards. "They'll both die here."

I quickly took aim and fired the dart gun.

Ice seemed to be ready for that and ducked behind the door. The dart stuck where his head would have been a second ago. He sneered evilly at me. "Good try, but not good enough."

With that, his group left.

I threw the gun to the floor and turned my attention to Shadow. I began unlocking his restraints and ripping the wires off his chest. "Shadow!" I yelled. "Wake up!"

He didn't react in the slightest. I could see smoke beginning to flow into the room around the edges of the door. The fire was incredibly close, but how did it spread so fast…?

It had to be the rubbing alcohol stash that Mark had found. I thought when he said that he found a stash, he meant about three bottles, not three gallons!

I lifted the Chaos Emerald out in front of me. "Get us out of here." I whispered. "Please, or we'll die."

The smoke was beginning to cancel out the lights in the room. I gently picked Shadow up and got as close to the floor as I could, trying not to cough. I thought I wouldn't make it out of here alive.

Sorry, Mom.

Sorry, Dad.

Sorry, Mark.

I love you.

** MARK**

I dodged falling debris from the roof and sidestepped a beam that was flaming. I had no idea where Monica could be, but something seemed to be leading me.

"Monica!" I screamed over the roar of the flames. "MONICA!"

I spun around, glancing for any indication that she was nearby. I saw nothing. I continued to make my way further and further back into the burning building, never stopping once.

By now the smoke was so thick I could barely breathe. I began to cough and my eyes watered. I squinted through the flames and saw something that looked like a pinprick of blue light.

What was that…?

I made my way to the light and found that a door was half closed in front of it. I pushed the door open to be greeted by six different colored lights, all sitting in a perfect circle in a glass case.

I smashed the case and put them all in my pockets, coughing the entire time. I didn't know if I could last much longer.

The Emeralds seemed to know what to do. I felt them tugging me in a direction I had to trust was the way either out or to Monica. Before long I came to the locked door that needed the key code.

6045

The door was blocked by a burning beam, but I shoved it out of the way and got the door open. Thick smoke came from the room, but the Emeralds lead me further on.

I tripped over something.

I hit the ground and then realized how tired I was. The smoke was using all the oxygen in the air…

Monica…

The six Emeralds drifted out of my pockets and reunited with another small light. There was a small spark of light…

And then a blinding flash.

I covered my eyes and waited for it to be all over. Instead, I began to breathe clean air. I coughed the smoke from my lungs and slowly glanced up.

The Seven Chaos Emeralds were circling a small portion of the room, drawing the smoke out and providing me with fresh air. Standing in the middle of the circle was Shadow.

His normally jet black fur and quills were now golden. He was radiating a glow similar to what I thought was the sun. He knelt down and picked something up. No wait…

Monica!

I wanted to get up and demand to know what happened, but I didn't have the energy. And the slight amount of energy I originally had was taken away in the bright flash.

And then the sound of fire eating away at the building was gone.

I cracked open my eyes to find myself looking up at dark clouds. And as I watched, they began to rain down fat drops of rain.

"Mark."

I glanced at Shadow, who was holding his hand out to me. I took it and he hauled me to my feet.

"Where's Monica?" I demanded, strength flooding through me.

Monica lay curled on the sidewalk nearby. I ran to her side. "Monica! MONICA!"

The burning lab nearby had a group of people standing around it; most of them witnesses to the fire but didn't work for the lab. Once they heard me yell they all came running over.

"Someone call an ambulance!" Someone shouted.

"Someone grab that creature!"

"No!" I shouted. "He's the reason we're alive!"

Shadow, still in his Super form, glared at the crowd like he dared them to come closer.

"Monica!" I shouted again, shaking my twin roughly. "Come on! You have to wake up!"

The crowd suddenly parted to allow two people to run onto the scene. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by my Mom and Dad, who were both crying, thanking God that I was safe, and demanding to know what happened.

Shadow began to stray from us, his golden glow fading back to black. The Chaos Emeralds suddenly lay glinting off to the side of the group.

"Mark, why did you sneak off?" My mom cried. "We were so worried!"

"We had to, mom! We had to prove that they weren't who those guys said they were!"

The rain was really beginning to come down now. It prevented the fire from catching the buildings next to it, saving them. My other friends were nowhere in sight, except for Leo. He smiled at me sadly and mouthed, "Is she ok?"

"Monica…" My dad broke off and dropped next to her side. "Monica, speak to me!"

Shadow clasped an Emerald in her hand and a soft red glow surrounded her. Within seconds, she coughed, opened her eyes, and stared at everyone like she didn't expect to ever see them again. "Dad…"

My dad scooped Monica into his arms and cried. I had never seen him cry before like that, and it was stunning to see how much he really cared for us.

A cheer broke out in the crowd. My mom threw her arms around my dad's waist and laughed and cried. I stood up and cheered along with the crowd until Monica said quite clearly:

"Dad, let go of me. This is very weird…"

The crowd laughed as hard as my parents had. I brushed my wet hair out of my eyes and turned to look back at the building. Part of the roof had collapsed but other than that nothing seemed worse in any way. I heard fire trucks in the distance.

"Wait!" Monica yelled, pointing. "Get them! They tried to kill us!"

I turned to see a guy with piercing blue eyes stare at us like he wanted us to burn. Instantly, Leo parted from the group and grabbed him before he could make a run.

"He tried to kill me and Shadow, and if it wasn't for Mark, then we'd probably be dead!" Monica continued.

"I didn't do anything! That child is crazy!" The man screamed, but his eyes said otherwise.

Luckily the crowd didn't believe him in the slightest.

Police and fire trucks began to pull up at the corner. A couple scientists tried to run, but they were caught and handcuffed.

Once again with the police business…

** MONICA**

We were back at the police station. Mom and Dad were busy telling their side of the story and Mark and I were telling ours. We explained (To a limit) who Shadow was and how he saved us. We tried to leave everyone else out of it because we didn't want the news to go out there and hunt them down just so they could get an interview.

Leo and Mark struck up a conversation, but it was quickly drawn to a close when he was pulled aside for questioning. I wondered if we would ever see him again…

Eventually the news and police left us and went back to our parents. I turned to Mark and Shadow. "We probably should go back and get everyone else." I said.

"Probably." Mark agreed.

We managed to sneak out of the station and run down the street to the abandoned office. Shadow literally tore the door down in his haste to get in the building.

We were greeted by Knuckles, who looked about ready to punch our lights out. "Oh, it's you." He said.

"Where's everyone else?" I asked.

"Second floor. We all thought that that would be safer."

We all trooped up the stairs to find Tails sitting in front of a doorway. Once he saw us he leaped up. "YOU'RE ALIVE! WE ALL THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!"

"Well, we aren't." I said. "Sorry."

"I can't believe we all managed to survive that place, though…" Sonic came to stand beside us. "I thought for sure we were all going to die."

"So did I." I shivered. "Where's Silver?"

"We found a room with a dusty old couch thing, so that's where he is. Blaze is with him, trying to get him to tell her what happened." Tails said.

"I saw what happened." I sighed. "I don't know why I waited that long to take the creepy guy I called Ice out, I don't know. I guess I was waiting for a chance to strike…"

"I'll go tell them that you're here." Tails ran down the hall and into a room.

"Now that we're all together and still in one piece, we need to focus on the next part of our story." Mark muttered.

"What's that?" Sonic asked.

"Tracking Eggman down and sending you all back."

"Ah." Everyone sighed at the exact same time. "Well, that may be a probablem."

"And how the heck do we send you all back? I mean, we've got the Chaos Emeralds, but I don't think that that'll be enough." I said.

"He did have these red things on the side of the clearing we were all in before we came here." Shadow said. "Once I think about it, I'm pretty sure those were some kind of…mirrors or generators."

"To bounce around or magnify the power of the Emeralds, no doubt." Knuckles said.

"How the heck are we going to get a bunch of mirrors or generators?" Mark asked. "I mean, they're not cheap."

"I think we'll manage." I said.

Tails came back. "Ok, Silver wants to see you, but he doesn't want to go anywhere because he's still freaking out."

"All right. After what he went through, I don't blame him." Everyone followed me to the back room.

Silver was lying on his side, clutching a pillow so tightly I was surprised that it's stuffing didn't poof out. Blaze was sitting on the ground, giving Silver a pitiful look.

"Hi, Monica." Silver squeaked. "Are they coming back?"

"Nope, we got them all taken off to jail." Mark said proudly. "We're safe now. All we need to do is find Eggman and send you all back."

"Oh, good." Blaze said. "I like your planet and all, but this place is a bit creepy."

"Sorry about the first bad experience." I said. "usually this place is so nice."

"Except to me." Silver squeezed the pillow tighter, sending up a cloud of dust. He sneezed. "Everyone hates me."

Blaze rolled her eyes.

"Um, ok, then. We need to find Eggman. Where should we start?" I asked brightly.

"I dunno." Everyone said at the same time.

"Great, we're doomed."

"Well, we have the Emeralds." Mark held up an Emerald. "So if he wants them he'll have to come get them."

"So in the meantime we need to find a clearing and set up some mirrors or something." I said.

"Come to think of it, I was pretty sure they were red mirrors." Tails said, deep in thought. "I think it's because the color red somehow boosts the Emerald's power…so he used a few red mirrors…"

"Great! Now we need to find a red mirror!" I said.

"I'm pretty sure I can do that." Tails said. "But I'll need a lot of mirrors, some equipment, and liquid ruby."

"I have a ruby necklace." I said. "I never wear it. How much do you need?"

"A little goes a long way." Tails said.

** MARK**

We went back to the police station this time accompanied by Tails. Our parents were only too happy to agree to help him. Within a few hours, we were at our house and Tails had gathered up every mirror in the house while we explained to our parents.

"All right. This is going to take a few minuets, but…" Tails grabbed all the stuff and went out to the yard.

Within ten minuets he had coated one of the mirrors in a thin layer of ruby. It was still as smooth as a normal mirror, just red. Pretty soon we had four mirrors to match the first.

"Do you think this is enough?" I asked.

"I think so." Tails said.

Our parents were a little surprised when we asked them to drive us back to Lansing when we practically just reached our house, but they didn't argue. They knew that our other friends were there anyway.

Pretty soon we were all, including Mom and Dad, gathered in the building, plotting.

"There's a small clearing in the woods." I said. "We can set it up there."

"And use the Emeralds to lure him?" My Dad asked, looking a bit confused.

"Yeah. Then Shadow uses Chaos Control, we get teleported back to our world, and hurray! We all live happily ever after." Knuckles said with a perfectly straight face.

"You'll be gone? Just like that?" I never thought about goodbyes until this moment. "Will we ever see each other again?"

"I don't think so." Blaze said sadly.

"Why don't you stay?" Monica suggested lamely. "I mean, we get snow. We can snowboard."

"I think it would be for the better if we all went back." Silver said. He still hadn't let go of the pillow. "This place scares me."

"It's beginning to scare me too." My mom said. "I can't believe those people were able to treat you like that."

"So when do we go and set this all up?" Sonic asked, changing the subject. "Now? Later? When?"

"The sooner the better." Shadow said.

"Then let's hit the road." My dad said, standing up. "We can seat seven people in all, but that's including all of the Clevelands."

"I can run there." Sonic said.

"I can fly." Tails said.

"I can teleport." Shadow countered.

"So that leaves…Blaze, Silver and Knuckles." I said. "Hey, it all worked out."

So about thirty seconds later we hit the road. The ride went smoothly until we pulled up into our driveway and Silver shoved his way out of the car so he could throw up.

"Oh, great." Monica groaned. "It just never ends with you, does it?"

"I had a bad day." Silver muttered.

The ten of us trooped out into the woods a little ways back.

"here." I said at last when there weren't too many trees in the way. "Right here's good."

Tails started setting up the mirrors around the small clearing. "So…after he shows up, we're gone, just like that." He said sadly. "I think this is goodbye…forever."

"I know." I said. "But at least everyone's not in danger."

"Yeah."

We didn't have to wait long. Within the hour Eggman showed up in that cheesy little hovercraft thing he's always in because he's too fat to walk anywhere.

"I should have known that you'd all escape." He hissed. "I should have taken care of things myself."

"You should, but you didn't." Blaze growled. "And now it's time for us to be heading back to where we belong."

"CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow shouted.

The Emeralds swirling around the grove began to glow, along with the red mirrors. Eggman tried to turn away, but the power pulled him closer towards the mirrors.

My family and I stepped backwards from the glow that was steadily glowing brighter.

Sonic gave us a thumbs up. "Bye, guys. Thanks for saving us from creepy peoples."

"Yeah." I sighed.

"Thanks, Monica." Silver said. "If it wasn't for you, I'd be dead by now."

Monica beamed. "Bye, everyone."

"No! This can't be happening! NO! NOOO!" Eggman yelled, eventually hopping out of the hovercraft and just trying to run away.

The glow got almost too to intense to look at and I turned away. There was an almost high pitched squealing.

Then it was over.

I couldn't believe that just like that, the people that had changed my life, made me stronger and braver, and brought my family together again had just vanished. I owed them so much.

I glanced back at the clearing and saw only smoking mirrors…and something else…

Monica walked over to where something was folded neatly in the leaves. She picked it up slowly.

"It's my hoodie. How did it survive the fire?"

"Who knows." I smiled. "A lot of impossible things happened in the last 42 hours."

With that, we walked out of the woods back towards our house, planning our next family vacation.

**END**

** So yeah, that's it. I really hoped you enjoyed this, because it took me forever to write. Gotta love the end here, it's one of my best yet, because it actually completed the story without needing a sequel or two. Or three.**

** JET: *Sniff* It was beautiful…*Sob*…**

** GHOSTKING: Thanks. So you forgive me for the bird jokes?**

** JET: *Sob*….no…**

** GHOSTKING: -_- *sigh…* so you're still an Angry Bird?**

** JET: :0**

** GHOSTKING: Ha-ha, just kidding. I like that game.**

** JET: *Sniff* but next time you write a Fan Fiction, can I be in it?**

** GHOSTKING: Su**_**uuuu**_**re….*Plots all ways to kill him***

** So anyway, review, favorite, PM me, NO FLAMES. I except criticism, NOT FLAMES!**

** Hasta la Vista, Readers!**


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